Adrian Newey recalls the ‘disillusioning moment’ which led to end of Red Bull-Renault partnership

Adrian Newey recalls the ‘disillusioning moment’ which led to end of Red Bull-Renault partnership

Red Bull chief technical Adrian Newey

For most of their existence, Red Bull Racing have utilized Renault engines. The French manufacturers are the second most successful engine supplier in Formula 1 history, with twelve titles to their name. They won four of those titles during their partnership with Red Bull, with six coming in the 90s during their collaboration with Williams, and two on their own as an OEM in 2005 and 2006.

From 2007 to 2015, Red Bull used engines officially made by Renault, with their most successful period between 2010 to 2013. While from 2015 to 2018, their engine was branded ‘TAG-HEUER’ it was still made by Renault. In 2019, Red Bull ended the collaboration, instead choosing to switch to Honda power. While for 2022 the engine is badged as ‘Red Bull Powertrains’, it is still manufactured by Honda.

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As per Planet F1, when detailing their earlier relationship with the French manufacturer, who won three championships with them in a full-works partnership, Red Bull chief technical officer Adrian Newey said: “The championships years of 2010 to 2013 were all with the Renault V8. We had a great relationship with the engineers at Renault.”

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Newey says that while Renault did not have the most powerful engine – they made sure that the power unit met Red Bull’s requirements: “I think it’s fair to say they didn’t have the most powerful V8, but it was a product that they tailored to suit our car – we had some particular requirements, particularly in the way we used the exhaust – and Renault bent over backwards to maximise what we needed from the engine.”

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Adrian Newey: Renault engine seemed to worsen going from 2014 to 2015

Adrian Newey
Adrian Newey

But after the disappointing in 2014, when Renault struggled to adapt to the regulation changes (when compared to Mercedes, at least) and in particular the switch to the new V6 engines, this relationship became critically endangered. While Adrian Newey thinks it was acceptable for them to make a mistake in the first year, it was really how the engine seemed to go backwards in 2015 that concerned Red Bull.

The Red Bull CTO called it a ‘disillusioning’ moment when the engine seemed to worsen: “When the engine that started ‘15 seemed, if anything, actually worse than the ‘14 engine, that was a pretty disillusioning moment and then you realise that in your foreseeable future if you do a spectacular job you might snatch the odd win here or there, but you’re never going to win a Championship.”

With just how successful the collaboration had been in the past, it was a ‘reset’ to choose to switch from Renault power: “So that was a reset, which I think we all had to come to terms with, particularly after that period of dominating the second half of 2009 and the subsequent four Championships, that this was not going to be our reality for the foreseeable future.”

With Honda, Red Bull have made progress every year. They finished third in 2019, second in 2020, marginally second in 2021 (winning the driver’s championship) and in 2022 returned to a similar level of domination as the early 2010s – even more so than was the case in 2013. However, from 2026 with the new regulations, ‘Red Bull Powertrains’ will be taking full responsibility for manufacturing the engine.

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