Red Bull has been a champion F1 team for a long time. Statistically, Christian Horner is the second most successful team principal after Toto Wolff. Before Mercedes dominated the turbo-hybrid era, Red Bull was enjoying hegemony on the grid with Sebastian Vettel steering the wheel. He won from 2010 to 2013 and equaled his countryman, the legend Michael Schumacher for most Grand Prix wins in a season. However, the current Red Bull champion Max Verstappen broke that record last year with 15 race wins in a season.
After all these years of success and failure since 2005, Red Bull has always been the customer looking for engines and people to build the car. But boss Christian Horner plans to develop their own factory where they can manufacture their own cars and won’t have to be a customer anymore. Although, their engine partner, Honda, had a great successful relationship with them. And the partnership will continue till the 2025 F1 season. And as per the previous reports, the Austrian team might partner up with Ford as engine partners from 2026.
Red Bull No Longer Wants To Be Customers, Working On Self-Reliability
Red Bull has had a successful run with Renault as an engine partner since 2010. But after the two parted ways in 2019, they got Honda. Since then, the Austrian team has been able to take charge and stay at the front of the grid. The RB19 car is the fastest of all the other cars on the paddock. But after the partnership with Honda ends, the Ford chapter will begin. Moreover, the American conglomerate will support the Red Bull Powertrain unit, and the Austrian team will take care of the Internal Combustion unit. Chief Christian Horner also talked about his F1 team changing to an in-house operation in the press conference before the Spanish Grand Prix.
The Red Bull’s boss mentioned, “It is high time for us to take care and build our own engines and not be a customer anymore. However, it was a very expensive decision.” He thinks it is essential to have the power unit on-site and on campus. Moreover, the Red Bull’s boss feels that it will help the team. If there is full integration between the chassis engineers and the engine. According to Horner, it will significantly benefit the team in the long haul.
Christian Horner Is Grateful To Honda For Withdrawing From F1
Although it is clear that Red Bull would not be capable of making such a decision if their current engine partner had not withdrawn from Formula One. Since Honda decided to leave F1 to take care of business at home, it became vital to look for new engine partners. Moreover, the Red Bull F1 team has a history with Ford company that dates back to the inception of the F1 team in 2005.
Later, Red Bull launched the RB19 car in America. That car launch event answered the question once and for all who’s the new engine partner of the Milton Keynes team? Christian Horner says they are grateful to Honda for giving them the push to make their own engines and, in the way, created a lot of jobs. Hence, the Austrian team’s boss is excited about what awaits them with Ford as a new engine partner.
