Honda basked in its championship success alongside Red Bull, saying that it was the culmination of seven years of hard work.
Honda will leave F1 before the beginning of the 2022 season, having returned to the sport in 2015 as an engine supplier to McLaren. The stint started off on the worst possible note, as their engines could not be relied upon at all.
Three years later, McLaren and Honda ended their partnership together, leaving the latter at crossroads. Red Bull arrived to help them find a way out, entrusting the Japanese manufacturer with the Toro Rosso cars and subsequently the main ones.
When Max Verstappen took victory at the 2019 Austrian GP, it was the beginning of a successful association. Fast-forward to the present day, and the Honda-powered Red Bull team has a Drivers’ Champion in Verstappen.
Honda basked in its championship success, having celebrated the end to their time in F1 in fine style.
As quoted by f1i.com, Honda F1 technical director Toyoharu Tanabe said, “Max winning the drivers’ title is a great achievement for us, as we have been in the sport since 2015 and have been through a very difficult period of seven years, gradually improving.
“Last year, we were quite a way behind Mercedes, but I’m very happy that we’ve come this far this year, with both drivers and constructors fighting for the championship.”
We’ve come a long way
“Unfortunately, we didn’t win the constructors’ title, but I think the reason we’ve come this far is because we believed in our technology, and we were determined to do what we had to do to win,” he continued.
“We worked relentlessly to develop our technology to win. We’ve had the support of our operations group, our travel group and our families who send their families abroad to help us achieve this.
“I was talking to the Sakura guys earlier, and I think there’s a sense of achievement in Max winning the championship at the end of the day.”
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