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Sky Italia pundit Davide Valsecchi has questioned whether Red Bull have the required knowledge to manage their engines after Honda’s exit.

Red Bull and Honda first began working together in 2018, with the Japanese manufacturer powering their junior team Toro Rosso for that season.

That year was enough to convince Red Bull to extend that deal to also cover their main team from 2019, a partnership which went on to secure the 2021 Drivers’ Championship courtesy of Max Verstappen.

Before that title success had been secured though, Honda’s exit from Formula 1 at the end of that 2021 season had long since been confirmed.

However, it was not the complete ending of ties between the two, for Honda built a 2022 engine for Red Bull and supplied it to the team, who now have their own power unit division called Red Bull Powertrains.

It has been an unreliable start to the season though, with Verstappen suffering two very costly retirements in the opening three rounds of the 2022 campaign.

Retiring from P2 at both the Bahrain and Australian Grands Prix, that was 36 points lost, leaving Verstappen down in P6 in the Drivers’ Championship.

Verstappen’s team-mate Sergio Perez was also forced to retire near the end of the season-opener in Bahrain while at sister team AlphaTauri, Pierre Gasly and Yuki Tsunoda have also encountered problems.

So, Valsecchi posed the question, has the transition phase with Honda left Red Bull lacking the knowledge they need for this power unit?

“We struggle to