No plan-B for Verstappen and Perez if Red Bull Powertrains fail
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When Honda decided to leave Formula 1, Red Bull came up with an ingenious plan: build their own F1 engines. The project is now in full swing. Christian Horner spoke to PlanetF1 about it.
At Red Bull Powertrains, they are working incredibly hard to be immediately competitive with the engine in 2026. In 24 months, the engine should be fitted in the RB22. That sounds like there's plenty of time, but Horner warns that that's pretty disappointing when it comes to developing a powerunit.
"It’s not that long in the engine world so there’s still an awful lot more to do in a very short period of time. But I’m confident that we’ve got the right people, and we can get there," said the Red Bull team boss, who would not reveal what stage of the process the Austrians are at. "We’re not going to go into detail yet of where we’re at, but we’re on a trajectory. But we’ve got a lot of ground to cover and a lot of ground to make up – we’re competing against manufacturers that have decades of experience."
Project Powertrains must succeed
Red Bull are working with Ford to build the new power unit. In addition to Red Bull, AlphaTauri will also run with these engines from 2026. Until then, they will still run with - originally - powertrains from Honda. That collaboration will come to an end within two years. Falling back on the Japanese engine manufacturers should the Red Bull Powertrains project fail miserably is not an option, Helmut Marko said earlier. Horner now confirms those words.
"Helmut’s absolutely right – we’ve made our commitment, we’ve made our strategic decision for the future, and we have to make it work," Horner concluded. So there is now no turning back for Max Verstappen and Sergio Perez's team.