No small business. Red Bull is ready to supply its engines to up to four teams – F1sport.cz
Red Bull has established Red Bull Powertrains in Milton Keynes and has begun developing its own engine.
New power units will enter Formula 1 in 2026. Red Bull will develop and manufacture them themselves starting this year. To do this, he founded the company Red Bull Powertrains, which is located directly on the team’s campus in Milton Keynes. He started the development himself, and negotiations with Porsche did not lead to an agreement. However, it cannot be ruled out that they cooperate with, for example, Honda, which has not properly left Formula 1 and does not rule out a return either.
“At the moment, of course, we are burdened with the cost of existing power units as well as development,” Christian Horner admitted, as quoted by RaceFans. But by 2026, the budget cap will be in full force and the costs will be more bearable than they were two or three years ago. A budget cap was necessary for us to become a new entrant.”
Under recently approved rules, the powerplant budget cap is set at $95 million for “development years” (2022 to 2025) and $130 million annually starting in 2026. New producers have a slightly larger budget.
Some costs are not included in the budget ceiling – for example, employee wages, taxes or the production of power units for customers. For now, Red Bull is expected to supply power units to sister team AlphaTauri as well, unless Dietrich Mateschitz sells them. According to Horner, Red Bull’s capabilities are even greater.
“Our in-house structure gives us the ability to produce engines for up to four teams. But it certainly wouldn’t be the primary goal. Of course, the initial plan is to supply the two Red Bull-owned teams.”
Four teams are supplied by Mercedes today. However, Toto Wolff admitted some time ago that Mercedes would like to lower that number.
“We have the engine and we are testing the prototype. We have all the dynamometers up and running.”
No small business. Red Bull is ready to supply its engines to up to four teams – F1sport.cz
Horner did not rule out the possibility of cooperation with Honda. However, repeat once again that Red Bull does not need a partner.
“Honda is a great company. They have announced their retirement from F1 to focus on electrifying their products and moving away from the internal combustion engine. So it can be assumed that if they want to return to F1 they will have to take that into account.”
“If there is any interest, potentially on the battery side, and potential synergies, it could be an interesting discussion. But on the combustion and mechanical side of the engine, we have a plan until 2026 and we are very happy with it.”
“Once we made the decision, we got down to business. It’s not a small business, some people say we are totally crazy to take on brands like Ferrari, Mercedes, Renault and maybe even Honda and start from scratch. But that is exactly Red Bull’s way – to achieve the impossible. It was the same with Structure design and construction.
“With the quality of people we have been able to acquire who are based in the UK, there has probably been no investment like this in a UK engine business for the past 40 years. This has allowed us to attract tremendous talent, which we are still actively recruiting, and we will announce More new team members in the near future.
