Why Max Verstappen is upset with Honda's Aston Martin F1 deal 

The real reason is that the Honda leadership that wanted to leave is no longer leadership. The new rules always included 100% renewed fuels.

You have to give Lawrence Stroll credit for going all in.

Had Honda not wobbled, they’d have more foundation for confidence going into 2026 - RBPT-Ford messing up is easily the biggest threat to Verstappen winning every title until his contract ends

I’m not sure what’s surprised me more this season, the AM-Honda deal or that AM actually has a competitive car

Knowing Honda, as soon as AM can challenge Red Bull they will quit F1

I just want a big Honda name plastered on the rear wing of a winning car. It looks so timeless. Love it.

honda really squandered a great partnership. they were clearly in the fight to win in 2021 so they couldve said we changed are mind that year because they were competitive. they also had the full support of one of the best drivers in f1 who wanted to succeed with them. instead honda followed through and left, only to return after red bull were in talks with porsche then ford. now redbull and honda have to walk away from an incredibly successful relationship because honda did a honda. i suppose there are 2 consistent failure points in f1, ferraris gonna fail strategy and hondas gonna leave and come back.

You dont even mention that the CEO that made the decision to withdraw from F1 passed away. Hence the need to have new leadership. New leadership decided to go in a new direction. But you present it as if Honda can’make up its mind. Please be better, love your content. PS as a Honda fan boy, is Honda really stressed about $200. Million dollar difference? To you and me thats alot, but to a auto company thats a drop in the bucket. “Without racing, there is no Honda” Soichiro Honda

Horner is correct, they should be thanking Honda.

Looking forward to them deciding to quit again in 2030 to do a full on comeback with another team in 2035. Because Honda 😂

“Honda’s adopted son” got me 😅

Didnt Honda also have a change in leadership in that time? I would assume this had a huge impact on decisionmaking within the company.

@the race the title is wrong. Max is not upset. He is not unhappy, disappointed, or worried. He said its a bit of a shame. That is sadness, let down. Different emotion. The upset title means more that there is anger in his opinion. While ven in your own video its not shown he is angry towards honda.

I don't think this is bad for Red Bull. I mean, they're actually going to have their own engine so they don't rely on anyone but themselves.

I support anything that has the potential to disrupt the order in F1. Will be interesting to see how Aston progresses.

Red Bull Ford Powertrains back to Zero (reset)

RB got fucked out of the blue, I can only imagine the swearing that went on in Horner's office

Won't be surprise if Verstappen leave Red Bull for AM to replace either Alonso or Stroll to reunite with Honda

History has shown that it's always better to be at the tail end of a Honda F1 stint.

There might be a further twist in this story; Max joining AM by 2026 while Nando is on his way in retirement...and thus Max following Honda's engine prowess. Just a thought.

Had Honda not decided to quit in 2020, RED BULL would not have won in 2021 as they brought forward the engine that was planned by 1 year

The RB Max won his first Driver’s title with, HONDA on the rear wing is an iconic car

It's Red Bull's decision not to partner with an engine supplier who leaves the sport on a regular basis.

The last point in the timeline at 1:03 and 4:15 is incorrect and seems to be duplicated. Was the last point not supposed to say "AstonMartin and Honda announce 2026 deal" instead of "Red Bull and Ford Announce 2026 deal"

They would have continued if RB would pay for the expenses. Stake holders would not nod if Honda had to pay millions for F1.

Hondas leadership should be questioned after this whole drama. The basically forced red bull to sign with someone else. Why would you want to lose that team? I feel like this whole sustainable fuel thing is just marketing mumbo jumbo anyways.

Aston Martin.... is making some serious moves these days. I wonder if they'll be the next dynasty at this point.

I can see why red bull would be annoyed but at least they are not at the mercy of the next time Honda decides to quit again 😂

Think Aston is REALLY rolling the dice getting in bed with Honda

Your timeline at 1:00 for May 2023 says Redbull announces ford deal when i think you meant to say aston honda deal annouced.

Had to double check I didn't have this on 3x playback speed. Normally love your content but was SMM in a huge rush when you made this?! Had to give up halfway through.

People forget the change of CEO within Honda which I feel was a huge part of why plans changed, The Race itself used to mention it, I feel Leaving F1 in terms of cost-saving and direction changing for Honda was a last ditch effort for keeping CEO, when it wasn't favored and a change of CEO was in place, the Idea of being in F1 was seen favorably within Honda especially as Red Bull challenged for what was one of the best seasons of recent memory. As Success continued Honda fully decided to back F1 involvement as not only they proved successful in the modern era, but the fact that the Japanese are very proud of Heritage, and Honda have a great history with F1 and have an extra motivation to not only participate in F1 but make it work, you can see that even compared to Renault/Alpine, Honda have always been passionate about their involvement in F1, to them its all or nothing now, and that's what the new regulations are built for, long term involvement.

I know this is how it goes but, goodness, imagine a universe in the near future where Red Bull, with their new engines, are third or fourth in the standing and Aston Martin and Honda and the Strolls and Fernando are leading the championship 🤯

Honda buying out Stroll would actually be full circle. Mugen Jordan Honda was original Team.

I haven’t seen Honda under this much controversy since Hector decided to run 3 Honda Civics with spoon engines, on top of going to Harry’s and ordering 3 T-66 turbos with Nos and a Motec system exhaust!

I want to see a video about what you guys think of the redbull floor.

There are more things in timeline you missed. Especially changes in Honda leadership between on/off.

Ford watching Red bull cry about Honda is like talking about an ex before the first date.

1:00 May 2023 area has typo error! Obviously a "copy-paste mistake"

I wonder how much this move, leading to the creation of their own powertrains division, contributed to the decision to keep Alpha Tauri.

Think there’s a wee error in the timeline graphic

Honda is just probably tired of having to deal with Helmut and Horner!

1:00 I see a typo? Editor copy pasted and forgot to change red bull to AM and Ford to Honda😂

the graphic @ 1:02 is incorrect. someone copy/pasted instead of writing it out properly...

This is the type of video where someone doesn't really now anything so makes most of it up. Cmon dude 🤘🤘

I wonder if there was anything massive that happened in 2020 that might have caused them to think about pulling the plug on an expensive project

It was quite obvious at the time they would regret the decision to leave.

Would there be any IP issues for Honda? Did they sell the IP of the power unit in the back of the red bull? Will that mean they have to develop a new engine from scratch?

Why would Max care, he said he wasn't going to race F1 much longer.

I mean Honda asked RedBull first, and they said 'no' so Its not Honda's fault that they tied with Aston Martin

"Why are y'all so flippidy floppity?" - Toyota Gazoo

The problem is and always has been Honda corporate. The executive board is now lead by MBAs and Accountants, no longer by an founder-engineer who was rooted in racing. Since his death, Honda has eroded continuously in their products and motorsport exploits. Honda Racing (HRC) was an exclusive entity within Honda. Their "Skunk Works". Very competitive and innovative. They are only hampered by budget dictated by the executives. We are seeing the same form of meddling in motorsports by Ferrari and Alpine's CEO. Honda's F1 championship success proved the existing executive officer wrong, and saw his ouster with a combination of exiting F1, and their collapsing global car sales. Dropped 60+% during the last 2 years with bad decisions of dismissing the BEV market and backing hydrogen fuel cells. The partnership to rebadge GM's future BEVs as Hondas in the USA will come back to haunt them. Their only good move was to partner with Sony to produce the chassis for the upcoming Sony BEVs. And the 180 to continue in F1 was another good decision. And yes, Max is right about the wasteful silliness and turn of events as an engine supplier. They could have stayed with Red Bull and prospered, but now painted themselves into a corner. It serves as an example of how poor CEO leadership can cost a company. And how exemplary CEO leadership, like Soichiro Honda, and Elon Musk, can make a company an industry leader and dominate their markets.

AM reminds me of Mercedes in 2013. Really good car but vs the Red Bull it was nothing in race pace. Then a change in regulations turned that all around. Who knows.

I want to know if this deal includes a not yet announced Honda engine in an Aston Martin production car.

Question is, did RB ask Max if he'd like to wait for Honda's decision before taking on Ford as its partner? Or RB was likely taking the matter as business since Honda is paying them? And now, what's the deal w/ Ford. Are Ford paying RB for a sticker on their car? That's the questions that are needed to be answered.

Can anyone tell me if Audi is bound by the cost cap yet? Or Can they spend as much as they like up until they actually enter a race?

As RB would have welcomed them back I wonder if this reflects they are difficult to work with. I think the power unit is viewed as subsidiary the chassis rather than the engineering marvels they are.

They wanna see Fernando become the oldest f1 champion. Imagine him winning it in 2026, 20 years after his last one. Edit: Nvm he’d have to win it in 2027 to be the oldest ever

Honda's crystal ball was off. When they decided to leave F1, it was because they were going to focus on pure EVs moving forward, and the new engine regs were not finalized yet. The world changed since then, and car manufacturers are beginning to realize the future of cars is hybrids, not EVs (for a variety of reasons that have only become clear to many in the last 2 years from insufficient power infrastructure, to raw material supply chain worries, and poor sales in larger EVs). With F1 focused on hybrid tech, it makes a good test bed for those looking to develop hybrid engine tech.

I love what aston martin are doing right now.

This deal makes perfect sense when you look at the numbers. With red bull, honda loses 100m but their partnership resulted in the best car in F1 With Aston Martin, Honda gains 100m and still in F1 as currently a top 3 team. If red bull were willing to shell out, Honda would've hummed a different Tune but instead Daddy Stroll walked into the Honda Board Meeting with wads of cash.

Honda doing Honda things.

I too am angry at Honda. smh. What a disappointment.

Where would The Race RU-vid channel be without Mercedes sidepods and Honda/RBPT stories

I never really understood corporate Honda. They made the same mistake with 2008

I saw team jump from engine to engine. But the engine jumping from team to team?

Also Honda was doing quite poorly in the consumer segment exacerbated by the semi conductor shortage.. seems like a knee jerk reaction and good on red bull, it’s hectic working with such a mercurial partner

RBPT was the right decision after all, who knows when Honda decides to leave again?

1:01 Glad to know RB announced the Ford deal twice lmao. Seriously tho, personally I'm actually looking forward to Honda-Aston from 2026. Hopefully it'll mean Red Bull dominance doesn't last as long as Mercedes' did.

All these comments. At the end of the day, Honda have been amazing. They could have easily quit back in the McLaren days, but they didn't. They completely recovered their desprate situation and made the best F1 engine. They deserve now to do what they want, all credit to them.

You were in a hurry didn’t you Scott Mitchell-Malm? 😅 Please slow down a bit and let us absorb the great content you guys share with us.

Haha finally Alonso gets his GP2 engine back 😂

Can you do a video on Russell's radio & if it had any chance of working? I wanna see how it could've played out

Better for red bull in the long run and probably everyone else in the short term considering the potential for durability issues even with a proven engine supplier, honda shot themselves in the foot there but hopefully an Aston Martin/Honda pairing will benefit both.

Honda are going to jump in with a real advantage considering how good their PU was good over the course of 20-21

Seems like 2026 F1 Season gonna be very spicy. Aston Martin Honda vs RBR Honda possibly gonna recreate Williams vs Honda 1993 again.

Papa Stroll wants to win and he'll throw however amount of money to help Aston (and his son) to achieve that, it's kinda awesome.

Honda: we're leaving. Lawrence Stroll: *opens chequebook* sure about that?

Aston Martin has always wanted to win when they started they was all over the Merc who was winning, now its Redbull & Honda they want some of that action

1:00 just as confusing - Red Bull announces 2026 Ford deal just three months after announcing a 2026 Ford deal.

1:03 wrong information o the time scale may-february 2023 same text :)

i have seen cat being more decisive in front of a door

Red Bull wasn't willing to pay for Honda's PU, so it was unavoidable that board of directors consider leaving the sport.

I understand Max's disappointment. But to be honest I think RBPT was a long time planning coming to fruition and its possible Honda would be another sticker on Redbull given some the pre-arrangements after Redbull had secured some of Mercedes top engine engineers. Honda didnt help their case with the change of management/direction and somewhat testing the waters before commiting. On the hand Im hoping Honda will take 2026 reg very VERY seriously, to hear that some of their ops have gone into hibernation isnt good news. With their partnership with Aston they do not have the luxury of a comeback with the cost cap and now no longer having Alpha Tauri as a test mule should things go wrong.

I'm surprised that teams still trust Honda with their traditional "come and go" rituals

Looking forward to the redbull car brand in the future.

Its about money, stroll is paying good money to develope.

There is so much hype building around 2026 and we aren’t even halfway through 2023 yet.

No offense to Ford but they are a wild card at this point, RBPT might be in for a major struggle in 2026+

As suggested Stroll has to be floating a huge amount of money for this, how can they do that with the cost cap?

Honda and their flip flopping in and out of the sport is...interesting for sure

The Race does a really good job of taking a few new quotes and creating an 8+ minute video recycling a lot of old news and stock footage to try and stimulate reaction. I know the news cycle isn’t that fast but we don’t need unnecessary videos just to raise ad revenue.

Max wants to keep winning and Honda is the ticket However, Redbull has engine construction aspiration and Ford is their ticket Conclusion: Differing self interests Redbull could have shelved their plans to be an engine manufacturer, still get returns from their factory by striking an agreement with Honda utilising them and of course some compensation occurring but RedBull did not want to change their plans.

This video implies that Honda are the only engine manufacturer in F1. Oh wait, they're the only one Red Bull hasn't burned it bridges with! Plus there's no guarantee that Honda's 2026 power unit will be competitive.

Biggest question: Rumors have it Aston Martin is paying 9 figures yearly, how does that add up to the F1 cost cap? Unless Honda is building more than just the power unit They just built a huge state of the art campus to manufacture their own parts and what not so how is this deal really working?

frustrating for them now but, now there is going to be more engine manufacturers in the sport, not a bad thing in the long run

What the heck did Aston Martin offer Honda to convince them to pull their engine out from underneath the most dominant driver on the grid? There’s something else here, that we’re not privy to…

It was always planned and Verstappen’s annoyance is performative. Honda’s fake withdrawal and the ‘necessity’ for Red Bull powertrains allowed RBR to drive a coach and horses through the cost cap

Why is Honda aligning themselves with a team that can only ever be at most 50% successful?

I’m just confused how so many “car manufacturers” rely on other companies to make their engines. If Honda is supplying AM’s engine then wtf do we need AM for? With Red Bull it was more understandable as they are not a car manufacturing company. I know lots of teams do stuff like this but it just seems so dumb. The point of f1 should be for each team to be completely it’s own thing. Honda should just make their own f1 team.