Red Bull and Honda separated by 'clear Chinese wall' – Horner

Red Bull team boss Christian Horner says a "clear Chinese wall" has been erected between Honda and Red Bull Powertrains to ensure no crossover of intellectual property from Japan to Milton Keynes.

Red Bull's newly signed partnership with Ford which was announced this week in New York spells the end to the F1 team's collaboration with Honda.

The Japanese manufacturer will continue to supply its power unit to the championship winning outfit and to its affiliate AlphaTauri until the end of 2025.

But thereafter, Red Bull Powertrains Ford will pick up the baton, which leaves Honda with an opportunity to start afresh in F1, under the sport's new engine regulations and with a new partner.

In the interim however, air-tight measures have been put in place between the two partners to prevent Honda's IP from falling into unauthorized hands.

"We have an agreement and great relationship with Honda until the end of 2025," Horner told the media after Red Bull's presentation in New York on Friday.

"There's no crossover of intellectual property, all the Honda engines are produced in Japan and everything on the RB Powertrains side is very much focused on 2026.

"So there is a clear Chinese wall between the two activities, but we're obviously going to be working with Honda over the next few years to achieve the best results that we can.

• Read also: Honda signs up for F1's 2026 engine cycle, but has no team

"They are fully committed, so it is very straightforward, and the relationship with Honda conclude at the end of 2025.

"We have a homologated engine, so it's effectively frozen.

"Honda supply that engine, they own all of the IP, so we don't see inside the engine or anything like that. We will be doing our best with Honda to try and defend and achieve further race wins and championships."

Red Bull is still building up its RBPT unit on its Milton Keynes campus. Horner reiterated the benefits for the F1 team of having its chassis and engine departments "under the same roof" in the future.

"The great thing about 2026 is by having everything on site, we have everything under one roof, one campus," said the Briton.

"We've got chassis engineers sitting next to engine engineers and so the integration of the chassis and engine is totally at one and that shouldn't be underestimated."

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