CHRISTIAN HORNER IDENTIFIES MAJOR ’70-YEAR-DISADVANTAGE’ IN UPCOMING BATTLE WITH FERRARI

Red Bull boss Christian Horner believes his new engine department is fighting against a ’70-year disadvantage’ against some rivals.

Red Bull will enter F1 as an engine manufacturer in its own right in 2026, having established ‘Red Bull Powertrains’ following the official departure of Honda from supplying power units.

Christian Horner: We have 70 years disadvantage against Ferrari

Red Bull was forced to look elsewhere for a new engine supplier following the departure of Honda at the end of 2021.

While a deal was reached with Honda to continue receiving power units on a supply deal as an engine freeze was introduced that negated the need for extensive research and development, a new arrangement was needed for the new regulation cycle coming in 2026.

While Honda has since reversed their decision to depart and has signed a new supply deal with Aston Martin to officially return as a supplier, Red Bull had to take steps to protect its own competitiveness without Honda’s partnership.

Unlikely to secure a Ferrari or Mercedes power unit supply, and unwilling to partner up with Renault again, Red Bull established its own ‘Red Bull Powertrains’ and, with a partnership with the arrival of Ford, will be an independent manufacturer of chassis and engine from 2026.

This means that Red Bull joins Ferrari, Mercedes, and Renault/Alpine in being a manufacturer of both, and will no longer be reliant on being an engine customer.

The task of creating a new power unit from scratch is no small effort, and Horner laughed as he pointed out some of Red Bull’s rivals have been creating their own engines from the very first day they entered F1.

“I mean, we’re on a steep learning curve, where we’ve got 70 years of disadvantage to Ferrari,” he said, pointing to the Italian manufacturer’s long tenure in F1, creating its own engines since 1950.

“But we’ve got a great group of people, we’re applying the same philosophy as we have on the chassis to the engine – it’s a different challenge.

“With the engine, there are no guarantees, and there’s no knowledge of where anybody else is with these new regulations.”

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Christian Horner: We’re meeting all our targets at the moment

F1 switches to a new power unit formula in 2026. While the architecture of a 1.6-litre turbocharged internal combustion engine is being retained, the power units will run fully sustainable fuel and will see a boost in electrical energy output to create a 50/50 split between combustion and electricity.

The engineering challenge facing all the manufacturers is massive, and Horner said Red Bull Powertrains didn’t have a blueprint to start from in the first place.

“It’s a clean sheet of paper and we don’t have the benefit of an existing engine to learn from,” he said.

“From a cost cap perspective, that’s a disadvantage.

“But then, at the same time, we don’t have a distraction of the current engine and the reliability fixes and so on that are having to be dealt with there.”

Despite this, Horner said the targets that have been laid down in terms of its development cycle and performance expectations are all being met, with only about 20 months to go until the power units are needed for on-track use.

“I guess we’re only really going to see in 2026, but we’re meeting our targets at this point in time,” he said.

“With just under two years to run, if I look at the progress we’ve made in the last two years from almost a standing start, it’s been very impressive.”

2024-04-22T13:29:06Z dg43tfdfdgfd