M OTO R S P O RT
Damien Smith R AC I N G L I N E S
Veteran principal Christian Horner is leading creation of Red Bull Powertrains
RED BULL’S POWER PLAY Christian Horner tells us about his team’s new independent status ax Verstappen will begin the defence of his Formula 1 World Championship in Bahrain on Sunday. All-new chassis regulations represent the biggest design shake-up in nearly 40 years, with a clear aim to improve the racing spectacle. The regulations for the 1.6-litre V6 turbo hybrid powertrains remain stable, but with a couple of crucial caveats: a power-sapping E10 fuel has been introduced, while homologation has been frozen from now until 2026, when a newgeneration powertrain will be introduced. So what each team has now is what they will have for the next four seasons. Development was frantic before the big freeze. For Verstappen, this ruling was particularly crucial because, at least for now, his Red Bull Racing team no longer has the support of a manufacturer engine supply, following Honda’s withdrawal from F1. Then again, he shouldn’t notice the difference, thanks to a deal for Red Bull to buy
M
and utilise Honda’s F1 intellectual property. The champion clearly has faith as Red Bull steps up as a newly independent F1 powerhouse: he has just signed a ‘golden handcuffs’ deal extension said to be worth north of ¤40 million per year that will keep him in Milton Keynes until the end of 2028. INDIE LIFE
A few days before the deal was announced and between the two pre-season tests, Autocar pays a visit to Red Bull’s expanding campus to catch up with team principal Christian Horner. In the office next door, technical director Adrian Newey is buzzing around during what is the busiest time of an F1 team’s year. Horner has plenty on his plate too, finalising plans for the new powertrain facility (which
he says should be fully operational by June) and completing an aggressive recruitment drive, while also fighting the usual political wars that are part and parcel of an F1 chief’s existence. No wonder the 48-yearold looks a little tired. “The past 12 months have been absolutely flat out in building the facility and recruiting the best talent,” he says. Many of the new arrivals, including technical director Ben Hodgkinson, have been poached directly from arch-rival Mercedes AMG High Performance Powertrains in Brixworth, just the other side of the M1. Buying in a Mercedes or Renault powertrain was never an option for Red Bull: far too many burnt bridges. “[Finalising] the regulations was key and the homologation freeze was fundamental,” says Horner,
`
We’ve been flat out in building the facility and recruiting the best talent a
“plus Honda gave us a soft landing. We have a Honda product running under licence, effectively. “They’ve had a positive winter, as if they were still in the sport. The only difference is we’ve been billed for it now. Obviously it’s a significant amount of cost, but thankfully we had such a competitive year in 2021 that we’ve brought in a title sponsor [software company Oracle], which is probably one of the biggest deals ever in F1. Then other supplementary deals have brought in a significant amount of revenue, which has gone straight towards the engine costs.” Now all attention switches to the 2026 powertrain. NEW POWERHOUSE
It’s an odd contradiction that while F1 teams are tied to a strict annual cost cap, which is $140m (£106.4m) for this second year of limitation, Red Bull is ploughing eyewatering sums into its new engine department. For Horner, this is a daunting and yet exciting time.
