The 2026 season will witness a major restructuring of F1 as a whole. With a new team entering the sport, the excitement will be on an all-new high. Another important aspect of the season will be the departure of Honda as one of the four-engine suppliers currently in the sport. With Honda’s departure, the biggest team to face a loss will be Red Bull. However, the Austrian team has been hard at work to develop their own engine and introduce it once regulations change in 2026. Reports from F1 Maximaal quote Christian Horner as being satisfied with the progress his team has made as they push to build a dependable powertrain.
Red Bull has an infamous image in the F1 realm of being a ‘customer team.’ Despite being one of the most dominant teams in the sport’s history, the Austrian outfit often faces backlash as other companies develop most of their parts. However, the team wants to change its image and start the production of its own engines. By doing so, not only will they create a powertrain for their cars from 2026, but they will also provide them to other teams who choose to partner with them.
Christian Horner claims Red Bull is making reasonable progress on their engine project
Red Bull has been on an unstoppable run of late. Not only have they won 24 of the last 25 races in F1, but they have also won all the races this season. With Max Verstappen winning his tenth consecutive race of the season, the Austrian outfit sits 310 points clear at the top of the constructor’s championships. The official verdict within the paddock says Red Bull will continue to dominate the rest of the field until the 2026 season arrives and regulations change. However, Christian Horner indicates they are making strong progress towards developing a powertrain capable of continuing their dominance.
“We want to establish ourselves first, and integrate a large group of people with our chassis team, and ensure that we work as one joint team. It’s a huge, huge project, but we’re on that journey and we’re making reasonable progress.”
Working closely with Ford in the development of their powertrains, Red Bull will look to continue the days of dominance they are currently enjoying. Once the revolutionary new season begins, not only will the Milton Keynes-based outfit sport self-produced engines, but they might also showcase the tech in some other teams on the grid. However, not all teams will be on their radar as potential customers.
McLaren, Haas, and Williams will not receive Red Bull engines
With 2026 being the introductory season for Red Bull engines, not all teams will fit it in their cars. While Red Bull and AlphaTauri will certainly feature the engines, the first season of the new era will not see any other car running on the new tech. While Ferrari, Mercedes, Audi, and Alpine will use their own engines, Aston Martin will use Honda engines in 2026.
As such, Haas, McLaren, and Williams will be three teams with no engine supplier for the season. Horner previously claimed that taking on too many customers in the first year of production would be a tall order and that they would only provide the engines to the two sister teams. However, in the longer term, Horner admits the team has built enough facilities to accommodate up to four customers.
