'Audi's interest causes problems between Red Bull and Honda'

The meeting to vote on freezing engine development was postponed to 25 February, but according to German Auto, Motor und Sport, the vote is still on 11 February. There is also good news for Red Bull Racing.

Formula 1 teams are negotiating about the future of Formula 1. Red Bull Racing and AlphaTauri are without an engine from 2022 onwards after the departure of Honda, and Red Bull refuses to take part in a development race. Therefore Red Bull wants to bring forward the planned engine development freeze for 2023 by one year.

Red Bull is right

However, the vote on this keeps being postponed and according to the latest reports, the vote would only be on February 25. Auto, Motor und Sport now reports that F1 will vote on this issue on February 11 and that the outcome is actually already certain: Everyone will vote in favour.

According to the German medium, Red Bull will get what it has asked for, and the new F1 engines will come as early as 2025 instead of 2026. The negotiations between Red Bull and Honda are also said to have been anything but smooth. Especially in the area of intelligent ownership, it would have been difficult.

Audi and Red Bull

Auto, Motor und Sport also suggest that "Honda wanted to make sure that data and construction details were not passed on to third parties or future engine partners." Audi wants to enter Formula 1 from 2025, and a logical partner would be Red Bull Racing. Honda, however, does not want their data to end up in Audi's hands via Red Bull. That problem now seems to have been solved. 

The only outstanding issue is the balance of performance. Mercedes have the best engine at the moment and there will be manufacturers who might not be so happy about not being able to develop their engine for three years. The question is whether an artificial way will be invented to reduce the gap between the engines, or whether the competition will have to close the gap to Mercedes in some other way.