Red Bull take over Honda's engine: These are the consequences for Verstappen

Red Bull have announced that it will acquire the Honda F1 engine project. Red Bull Racing and AlphaTauri will therefore run with Red Bull engines from 2022. What will this mean for Max Verstappen?

Red Bull goes with their own engines

Honda decided to pull the plug from the F1 project and that had major consequences for Red Bull. In 2019, Red Bull Racing switched to Honda engines to compete for the world title, but that all fell into the water.

For Red Bull, it was not an option to go back to another manufacturer. Ferrari, Mercedes and Renault each have their own team. With Honda, the team had another situation in which it has control over the engine, and that is now being lost.

However, there is now good news for the fans of Verstappen, because the Honda engines will not disappear. Red Bull is taking over the project from Honda and is even in the process of converting a factory in Milton Keynes into an engine division. As a result, Red Bull will soon have everything in their own hands and it will no longer be possible to point to other parties.

Freeze the engine development

However, this took some doing, because Red Bull could not do it if it were allowed to further develop the engines in 2022. It already costs Red Bull a lot of money to start producing these engines itself, but it does not have the reserves to participate in the development battle.

In 2023, however, there would be a stop on this development, so all attention could be switched towards the new engines. Now, however, that has all been brought forward by one year. A nice step for Red Bull, but of course also for Verstappen.

Trust of Verstappen?

This is also good news for the Dutch. Verstappen already signed in 2020 up to and including 2023, thereby giving his confidence to Red Bull. The fact that Honda suddenly announced to stop will therefore not have fallen well. The fact that Red Bull now remains independent and has access to a competitive engine is good news for Verstappen.

Despite all clauses, Verstappen does not have many other options. At Red Bull Racing he has access to a fast car, but one that is slower than Mercedes. However, that team already has a clear leader with Lewis Hamilton and does not seem to be planning to bring Verstappen in. Mercedes has not yet forgotten the tensions that existed between Nico Rosberg and Hamilton.

So there is nothing else for Verstappen than to get the most out of it with Red Bull Racing, and that will only go better with their own engines. Now it is up to Adrian Newey and his team to show that Verstappen's confidence has not been misplaced and that Newey can still build a championship-winning car.

This article was written and originally published by Bonne on the Dutch edition of GPblog.com.