Tsunoda part of the negotiation? 'More difficult for Honda to get out'

Red Bull Racing will have to look for a new engine supplier by 2022, but this turned out not to be very surprising. According to Olav Mol, the man in charge of Honda has not been a fan of F1 for some time now.

Last week it was announced out of nowhere that Honda will stop Formula 1. Honda returned to the sport in 2015 with the goal of becoming world champion, but five years later it has not yet succeeded. The Japanese are no longer pressing ahead and will stop the project at the end of 2021.

''There has been an important two-wheeler director for some time now and he doesn't like four-wheelers very much. Nor does he see Honda's commitment reflected in the number of cars sold. The contract expired from Honda at the end of 2021 and unlike the teams, they do not have to sign a Concorde Agreement'', says Olav Mol at F1 aan Tafel.

The Ziggo Sport commentator saw opportunities. ''There was the hope that with Yuki Tsunoda in the AlphaTauri they would make it more difficult for Honda to get out, but they have now extended their contract to build the IndyCar's 'Mercedes engine'," said Mol, who is not seeing a new engine supplier in Formula 1 so soon.

''For a new engine supplier it's just very difficult, because the last supplier to join is Honda and we all now know how much trouble they had with McLaren in the beginning', Mol refers to the period when Fernando Alonso described the engine as a 'GP2 engine'.