The last time a Formula 1 Team bought an engine manufacture (Arrows 1998-99)

With the recent news that both Red Bull teams will run Honda Power-Units till 2025, which means buying the Power-Units intellectual property from Honda re-branding them as Red Bull Power-Units for the next four years making them their own. Which means Red Bull has bought an engine manufacture of sorts.

This is not the last time a Formula 1 Team bought an engine manufacture. Back in 1997, Arrows bought Brian Hart Ltd., also known as Hart and Hart Racing Engines and thus Arrows became the first British F1 team to produce their own engines since BRM in 1977 for the 1998 F1 season after Arrows former engine partner Yamaha (prepared by Judd) withdrew from Formula 1 at the end of the 1997 season.

Arrows Team Boss Tom Walkinshaw explained the move as a chance to push the team's engineering further forward and to cut costs on paying for customer engines. However, Hart's budget was not enough to compete with the major car manufacturers of Ferrari and Mercedes, and it show with these two examples.

Car 1: 1998 Arrows A19
Story: Arrows A19 was designed by John Barnard and Mike Coughlan. The Arrows A19 used the Arrows 3 litre V10 producing around 700 bhp. The A19 was a good car ruined by poor reliability which include the gearbox and the Arrows engine itself. Also, the Arrows engines where slow, heavy, 100 bhp less then the leading Mercedes engines in 1998. Overall, the Arrows A19 took Arrows to seventh in the Constructors' Standings in 1998 with 6 points best result of fourth place finish for Mika Salo at Monaco.

Car 2: 1999 Arrows A20
Story: Arrows A20 was designed by Mike Coughlan and Eghbal Hamidy. The Arrows A20 used the Arrows 3 litre V10 producing around 715 bhp. The Arrows A20 was a mild update of the A19, which had not been too competitive itself during 1999. The slowest car on the grid during the second half of 1999 F1 season; just like 1998 the car was ruined by poor reliability again which include the gearbox and the Arrows engine itself once more. Just like 1998, the Arrows engines where still heavy, slow despite the improvement on 15 bhp, still 100 bhp less then the leading Mercedes engines in 1999. Overall, the Arrows A20 took Arrows to ninth in the Constructors' Standings in 1999 with 1 point best result of sixth place finish for Pedro de la Rosa at Melbourne.

By the middle of 1999, Arrows signed a deal with Supertec (re-badged Renault) engine to supply them with engines (70 bhp much better off) for the 2000 season ending the Arrows (Hart) engines in Formula 1 with better results.

Arrows having their own engines wasn't a bad idea, in execution it didn't work

Hopefully, the Red Bull V6 Hybrid Power-Units will do a much better job then the Arrows V10 engines from the late 1990s.