Yamamoto set to leave Honda, Take up Red Bull role

Honda exited F1 at the end of the 2021 season, with Red Bull establishing Red Bull Powertrains, to take over the power-unit operations from their departing partner.

However, Helmut Marko revealed that Honda will continue to supply power units for the Milton Keynes outfit until the end of 2025 as new power units will be introduced in 2026, the Austrian claiming that the former partners' joint title success with Max Verstappen clinching his maiden F1 title, being a factor in this decision.

Now, it has been reported by Motorsport.com Japan, that Honda's F1 Chief Masashi Yamamoto is set to leave his role with the Japanese manufacturer by the end of January, and will take up a consultancy role with Red Bull Powertrains.

Speaking of his future plans, Yamamoto told Motorsport Japan: "We have established a new company. We want to do something that makes people happy, and if we win in F1, then fans will be happy with that.

"We've signed a contract with the company at Red Bull Powertrains," he revealed. "The company has me, at the request of Red Bull's Christian Horner and Helmut Marko, to support them.

"It's a contract between companies, so it's difficult to speak about details, but as one of the members of Red Bull Powertrains, I will undertake work that will help them," the Japanese engineer explained.

Yamamoto gave some insight on his future role, and said: "If, for example, they want to understand Japanese culture and Honda's culture, and have a closer and better relationship with Honda, we can support it.

"Basically it's a bridge between Red Bull and Japan," the former Honda Chief summed up.

Yamamoto revealed when he decides to leave Honda, and gave some insight on the reason behind his decision, giving a rundown on his career in Sakura.

"I decided that in March of last year," he said. "I was appointed director of motorsports in 2016, and my goal was to win the SUPER GT championship at first. I was able to achieve that in 2018 [with Naoki Yamamoto and Jenson Button].

"For the next three years, I was dedicated to F1. From the beginning, I thought that this work was the culmination of my life at Honda and I thought I could make use of everything I had experienced there.

"I was wondering if we could win with Red Bull for the first time in the first year, and then have a good [championship] fight with Mercedes in the second year. But that wasn't the case.

"But, in the third year, with Verstappen's driving ability and the strong Red Bull team we managed to win the championship," Yamamoto concluded.

With Marko's announcement of the new power-unit plans between Red Bull and Honda, and Yamamoto leaving the latter, it would be interesting to see how this develops ahead of the 2022 F1 season.