Since Honda pulled out of F1 at the end of last year, Red Bull Racing has started work on its own power unit department to take over hitherto Japanese engines.
And while during the transition phase, Honda will continue to build power units at its Japanese facilities, many of the staff that helped Max Verstappen win the drivers’ championship last year have moved on to other projects.
However, it has emerged that Yamamoto , who was Honda ‘s top manager in F1, will leave the Japanese company this month to set up a consultancy that will work alongside the Red Bull team to help them in any way possible.
Speaking of his plans, the Japanese himself said that his idea was to act as a meeting point between Red Bull and Honda to ensure that relations remain strong.
“We have established a new company,” he told the Japanese edition of Motorsport.com in an exclusive interview. “We want to do something that makes people happy, and if we win in F1, the fans will be happy about it.”
“We have signed a contract with Red Bull Powertrains . The company has me, at the request of Christian Horner and Helmut Marko , to support them in everything.”
“It’s a contract between companies, so it’s hard to talk about the details, but as one of the members of Red Bull Powertrains, I will do a job that will help them.”
Yamamoto expects to attend several races in his new role and says the decision to leave Honda came after they confirmed they were retiring from F1.
“I decided that in March of last year,” he explained. “I was appointed director of motorsports in 2016 and my goal was to win the SUPER GT championship at the beginning and I was able to do that in 2018 [with Naoki Yamamoto and Jenson Button].
“For the next three years I dedicated myself to Formula 1. From the beginning I thought that this job was the culmination of my life at Honda and I thought that I could take advantage of everything I had experienced so far.”
“I was wondering if we could win with Red Bull for the first time in the first year together with them, and then try to get into the fight [for the championship] with Mercedes in the second season. But that was not the case.
“However, in the third year working together with them, with Verstappen ‘s driving ability and the strong Red Bull team, we managed to win the championship,” concluded the Japanese.
