Christian Horner insists Red Bull powertrains can beat OEMs like Mercedes and Ferrari, claims ‘its just a label’

Red Bull's current partnership with Honda for F1 power-units will end at the end of 2025.

Christian Horner insists Red Bull powertrains can beat OEMs like Mercedes and Ferrari, claims ‘its just a label’

Christian Horner (Via: IMAGO)

Red Bull has been using the Honda powertrain since 2019, which proved to be very successful in recent years. However, a partnership between Milton Keynes and Ford for an in-house power-unit division in 2026 is in place. Red Bill will undertake most of the development with assistance from the carmaker. Hence, Christian Horner has claimed that the Austrian team will match OEMs with its power units.

The Briton expressed that it all came down to the work ethic, quality of the people, and the need for the right facilities to successfully develop a great powertrain for the team. Horner reckoned that if Milton Keynes got these factors correctly, there was no doubt of emerging victorious over the other auto giants such as Ferrari or Mercedes.

If you have those key ingredients in place, why can’t we beat Mercedes? Why can’t we beat Ferrari?
Horner told Sky Sports F1 podcast.
YouTube video

In addition to raising certainty over Red Bull powertrains challenging the other teams, Christian Horner pointed out that the name of the teams over the Engine manufacturing was nothing short of just a ‘label’ or a ‘brand’. Hence, Any engine manufacturing giant in the sport was beatable according to the 51-year-old.

FS Video
It's just a label, it's just a brand. Anybody is beatable.

Red Bull powertrains will be backed by Ford Motors by the 2026 season

Honda presently supplies power units to the two Red Bull teams till the end of the 2025 F1 season. Additionally, the current power units remain Honda’s intellectual property. Red Bull Power units has no real involvement in the power units for now courtesy of the development freeze in F1.

Red Bull announces their partnership with Ford at their car launch
Red Bull announces their partnership with Ford at their 2023 car launch (Credits: Racecar Engineering)

However, after the exit of the Japanese manufacturer by the end of the 2025 season, the American giant Ford would support Red Bull for the development of the power units henceforth. The RBPT would then rename itself to ‘Red Bull Ford Powertrains,’ indicating the partnership between the two giants in their respective categories.

The Honda stint has proven to be very successful for Red Bull, enabling the Milton Keynes team to boast three world championship titles since 2021 alongside Horner. Hence, the Ford partnership has to provide the team with an equal if not a better racing opportunity as the sport would see a lot of changes by the 2026 changes and the regulation changes.

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