Red Bull motorsport boss Helmut Marko has revealed that Honda will continue its direct supply of engines to the energy drink company's F1 teams until the end of 2025.
The change of plan takes a significant burden off Red Bull Powertrains which was expected to fully take over Honda's engine program from 2023.
Following its official departure from F1 as a works supplier to Red Bull Racing and AlphaTauri, Honda struck an agreement with Red Bull by which it would continue to produce and assemble its annual allocation of power units at its Sakura R&D facility in Japan.
It was also agreed that Honda would provide technical support to Red Bull on race weekends while the bulk of its UK personnel would transfer to Red Bull Powertrains in Milton Keynes.
However, while it was originally expected that Red Bull would take over Honda's power unit program from next year - including its intellectual property - for a three-year period running up to the start of F1's new engine regulation cycle in 2026, the Japanese manufacturer has now changed its plan.
According to Marko, Honda has extended until the end of 2025 this year's protocol of collaboration and its direct supply deal with Red Bull.
"We have now also found a completely different solution to the one originally envisaged," Marko told Austria's Autorevue magazine.
"The engines will be manufactured in Japan until 2025, we will not touch them at all. That means that the rights and all these things will remain with the Japanese, which is important for 2026 because it makes us newcomers."
Honda's change of plan is indeed important for Red Bull Powertrains as the latter – labeled as a new engine supplier on the same level as potential entrants Porsche or Audi - will benefit from the concessions awarded by the FIA to those new manufacturers that would join the grid from 2026, such as a higher budget cap threshold.
Marko explained that Honda's 2021 championship winning campaign with Red Bull and Max Verstappen sparked a rethink of its involvement with F1.
"In the course of our ever-greater successes, a certain rethinking has taken place among the Japanese," explained Marko. "And also that they could of course use the battery knowledge for their electrification phase.
"It was initially planned that they would only make our engines for 2022. Now it has been decided that this will continue until 2025, which is of course a huge advantage for us. This means we only have to make fine adjustments and calibrations."
Despite Honda's change of plan, the build-up of Red Bull Powertrains' dedicated unit at Milton Keynes continues as scheduled.
"The plant will go into full operation in May/June," said Marko. "The final decision to do it ourselves was conditional on everything being frozen. Because otherwise we wouldn't have had a chance with this complex thing."
Gallery: The beautiful wives and girlfriends of F1 drivers
Keep up to date with all the F1 news via Facebook and Twitter
