Red Bull are not ready to supply rival teams with their own power unit, claims Horner
Red Bull Powertrains are not ready to supply rival teams with their own power unit when the new rules come into effect in 2026, claims the Milton Keynes-based outfit team boss Christian Horner.
For 2026, Red Bull and sister team RB will switch from Honda engines to power units developed by Red Bull Powertrains after the Milton Keynes-based outfit elected to manufacture their own engines when the new technical regulations come into effect.
Red Bull will partner up with American automotive giant Ford which the car manufacturer's contribution set to come in the form of battery expertise.
2026 will see that the 1600 cc, 90-degree V6 architecture remains unchanged, with a similar RPM limit. However, the MGU-H will be ditched while further key changes will include an increase in output for the MGU-K and much tighter constraints on internal combustion engine design.
The ICE will run on 100% sustainable fuel by 2026, which must be sourced from non-food bio sources, municipal waste or certified carbon capture schemes.
In recent weeks, it has emerged that McLaren might also be interested in starting a collaboration with Red Bull Powertrains, switching from Mercedes engines to the power units manufacture red by the Milton Keynes-based rival.
Although Red Bull team boss Christian Horner confirmed that his team has already been approached by "various parties" interested in their power units, the Austro-British company is intent on focusing on its own two teams before supplying further squads.
"If something comes up later, we are open to the right partner. With the facilities we have here, we can supply engines to four teams. That is not a problem in terms of supply. In the future, as I said, we are open to that, but in the short term, our focus is on both Red Bull teams."
"We are now taking our destiny completely into our own hands," Horner is quoted as saying by RacingNews365.
Expanding on the team's progress with its first power unit, Horner said: “Our facilities are complete, both from a test and development point of view with dynos and rig rooms, etc, and manufacturing capability.
“But two years in the engine world is a very small period of time. We're on a steep learning curve, but we're on that curve and where we would expect to be on that curve at this point in time.”
“We are hitting the targets that we're setting ourselves. Now, how those targets stack up to our competitors is always difficult to know. But the effort that's going in behind the scenes is huge, because it is literally a race against the clock to the start of 2026," Horner concluded.
