F1 News: Red Bulls Honda engineers set to move to Aston Martin

With Honda set to supply engines to the Aston Martin F1 team starting in 2026 while Red Bull produces its own engines with Ford, Honda engineers that currently work with Red Bull are slated to leave the team after the Japanese GP.

Marca now reports that Red Bull is facing a ‘massive’ staff exit with multiple Honda engineers primed to leave after this coming weekend’s race at Suzuka.  Many of these  engineers turned down a chance to join Red Bull’s engine division and will move to Aston Martin after a gardening leave period.

The Honda engineers deciding to remain with the Japanese brand rather than possibly join Red Bull Powertrains will be a big blow to Red Bull Racing, as they start creating their first in-house engine for next season.

The complexities of the engine rules have caused some teams issues, and HRC president Koji Watanabe recently suggested Honda are ‘struggling’ with developing their 2026 engine.

It is also widely expected that Mercedes will have the best 2026 F1 engine like back in 2014 when they dominated the sport with so much extra HP that Lewis Hamilton won everything during that period.