The F1 program was by far their most expensive program, and would have easily had the worst ROI. The Honda engine (well, _this_ Honda engine at least) was not g

The F1 program was by far their most expensive program, and would have easily had the worst ROI. The Honda engine (well, _this_ Honda engine at least) was not going to win a world championship. It was miles behind the Mercedes engine, it didn't even look as good as the Renault one. Even the crippled Ferrari engine was beating one of the Honda teams. The main Red Bull team has got some not bad results from it, but that's obviously down to Verstappen's talent. Because everybody they've put in as his team mate has completely failed to deliver. Dropping out of F1, and investing in more consumer-facing (ie, profit generating) technology was an obvious cost cutting exercise. Given their obviously ongoing commitment to ICE motorsport and car production, you don't have to be very cynical at all to imagine the green-tech part of the statement was just thrown in there for some free PR (it's hard to imagine this news would have otherwise been post here, for instance). Also, if anybody's interested in who's going to replace them at Red Bull, the article implies Mercedes is a possibility. It's not, the rules only allow a manufacturer to have 3 engine customer teams (unless they get a special exemption from the FIA). Mercedes already has 3 engine customers. It will almost certainly be back to Renault, because Renault are required by the regulations to give them an engine if they ask for one, and the Ferrari engine is terrible at the moment.