Christian Horner believes Red Bull will begin F1’s new regulatory era with a 70-year disadvantage against Ferrari.
The Milton Keynes-based team is developing its own in-house power units through the Red Bull Powertrains section in anticipation of the latest rule change for 2026.
The MGU-H is removed from the system, along with enhanced electrical systems capable of producing more than 1,000bhp. Eco-fuels will also play an important part as Formula One strives to become carbon-neutral by 2030.
It is part of a substantial reform of the regulations, and the cars themselves will undergo significant alterations. You may find a detailed outline here.
Horner admits that his team is naturally behind Ferrari in terms of understanding how to manufacture power units.
“We’re on a steep learning curve, and we’re 70 years behind Ferrari,” Horner told RacingNews365.
“We have a wonderful team, and we’re bringing the same mentality to the engine that we used on the chassis. It’s a different challenge.
“There are no guarantees, and no one knows where anyone else is; with these new regulations, we start from nothing, and we don’t have the benefit of an established engine to learn from.
“From a cost cap perspective, that is a disadvantage, but then at the same time, we don’t have the distraction of the current engine, reliability fixes and so on that are having to be dealt with there.”
There has been suspicion that RBPT’s project is falling behind schedule, but Horner insists that is not the case and only praises what he believes has been accomplished in a short amount of time.
“We are only really going to see [what happens] in 2026, but we are meeting our targets at this point in time,” he said.
“With just under two years to go, I look at how far we’ve come in the last two years from where we started.
“We don’t even have chassis rules yet, but if I had to back any team to get the chassis correct, I believe we have a good track record.
“It is very bold what we’ve done, very brave and it is pretty ballsy, Red Bull wouldn’t have won 117 races and done what we’ve done making bold decisions.”
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