In recent days, rumours have emerged that Red Bull Powertrains would be lagging behind in the development of its F1 engine for the 2026 F1 season. However, Red Bull team boss Christian Horner makes it clear that development is perfectly on schedule.
Red Bull Powertrains’ collaboration with Honda will end at the end of 2025 and from 2026 it will use completely new engines developed in collaboration with the American Ford. There are a lot of rumours going around about the development of those engines.
For example, development would be behind schedule and the engines would not yet generate the intended ‘output’ in terms of power. However, according to Christian Horner, none of that is true.
“We are on an aggressive curve with the engine, considering we are a brand new engine supplier. But the team is doing well to meet this challenge,” Horner told ‘Motorsport.com’. “Our facilities have been completed, both in terms of testing and development capabilities, including test benches and facilities for building the engines.”
“But two years is a very short period in the motorsport world. We are on a steep learning curve, but we are currently at a location on the curve that we would have expected at this point.”
At the same time, Horner realises that it is very difficult to estimate what the competition is doing in the meantime and that the focus is mainly on its own developments.
“We are achieving the goals we set for ourselves,” said Horner. “How those objectives compare to the competition is always difficult to know.”
“But the efforts behind the scenes are enormous because it is literally a race against time to be ready by 2026.”