Honda know-how will help Aston Martin: ‘They also gave Red Bull a good engine for 2021’

Former driver Giedo van der Garde thinks that the partnership between Honda and Aston Martin will soon end from 2026, mainly because Honda provided a very good engine for Red Bull Racing before Red Bull Powertrains took over. With Fernando Alonso as the leader of the team, Van der Garde believes that success can be achieved.

On Thursday, April 11, Aston Martin was proud to announce that two-time world champion Alonso will remain with the team for a while. The Spaniard’s contract was due to expire at the end of this year, but he is likely to stay until at least the end of 2026. The British racing team announced he had signed a multi-year deal, but did not specify how many seasons. it’s about. Many assume the end of 2026, so that Alonso will have a year to see how the team works under the new rules. From 2026, Aston Martin will join forces with Honda… fifty and fifty build an engine that provides the amount of energy of the car and the amount of electricity.

The partnership between Alonso and Honda did not go well early in his career. In 2017 and 2018 he raced with McLaren’s Honda engine, and then out of confusion he called the power source GP2 engine. That is now forgotten and forgiven. “I thought it was a logical choice,” says Van der Garde DRS: De Race Show-podcast about Alonso’s contract. “He’s in a good place, the team trusts him completely,” the former driver continues. “He is the leader of the team, he had a great year last year, a little bit this year. He knows Honda is coming.” Van der Garde is delighted to see that the two-time world champion has signed. ‘Who knows, maybe in 2026 they will finally come with a Honda engine.’

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Honda will continue to work with Red Bull Racing until the end of 2025. The successful combination joined in 2019 and has been working together with Red Bull Powertrains in recent years. The Austrian racing team will continue with Ford in 2026. “In the beginning it was a love-hate relationship,” says Van der Garde of the relationship between Honda and Alonso. ‘GP2 engine That was a real death blow at the time. But in fact now it is a team that is really growing. A brand new factory is being built, good people are employed. They are very intelligent there. And I think that combination with Honda can go well right away. Honda has certainly produced some great engines in recent years until Red Bull Powertrains took over, and there’s a lot of skill.’

Van der Garde is not putting Alonso on the podium in China

Van der Garde has something a little surprising to say about Max Verstappen and Red Bull in his podcast this time. The former driver expects nothing more than that things will go well in China. He predicts that Verstappen will win both the race and the Grand Prix. ‘My top three in racing are Verstappen, Leclerc and Sainz. I think Leclerc quite well desire is to prove himself and show what he can do,” thinks the former driver.

“The circuit might suit him well, whereas Ferrari might be fine, so yes, I expect Leclerc in P2,” says Van der Garde. His podcast colleague Joost Hofman hopes there is an opportunity for Alonso to extend his contract immediately. to add give “In the sprint I say Verstappen, Sainz, Pérez and for the Grand Prix I say Verstappen, Pérez, Alonso,” says Hofman.

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