Christian Horner sees a huge ’70s’ shortfall in the upcoming clash with Ferrari

Red Bull-baas Christian Horner he believes that it is his new engine department is battling a ’70-year losing streak’ against some rivals. Red Bull will enter F1 in 2026 as an independent engine manufacturer since the creation of ‘Red Bull Powertrains’ following the official departure of Honda as engine supplier.

Red Bull had to find a new engine supplier following the departure of Honda at the end of 2021. Although an agreement was reached with Honda to continue supplying engines due to the engine freeze which made extensive research and development unnecessary, there was a new plan needed for the new cycle regulation from 2026.

Honda has since reversed its decision to leave and entered into a new distribution deal with Aston Martin to officially return as a dealer, but Red Bull had to act to protect its competitive position without Honda’s cooperation.

Red Bull, which could not be a Ferrari or Mercedes dealer and did not want to work with Renault anymore, started its own.Red Bull Powertrains‘ and, with the arrival of Ford as a partner, will be an independent manufacturer of chassis and engines from 2026.

This means that Red Bull will join Ferrari, Mercedes and Renault/Alpine as both manufacturers and will no longer be dependent on an engine buyer.

Building a new power plant from scratch is no small feat and Horner laughed as he pointed out that some of Red Bull’s rivals have been building their engines since day one when they raced in F1. “We are on a steep learning curve, where we are at a disadvantage for 70 years compared to Ferrari,” he said, pointing to the Italian manufacturer’s long tradition in F1, which has been developing its engines since 1950.

“But we have a great group of people the same philosophy applies to the engine as the chassis – it’s a different challenge. There are no guarantees with the engine and we don’t know where others stand with these new rules.”