7 minute read
Damien Smith Inside line on Red Bull from Horner
from sin46th magzus.org
by Thomas Swift
T R O P S R O T O M
DamienSmith
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RACING LINES
Veteran principal Christian Horner is leading creation of Red Bull Powertrains
RED BULL’S POWER PLAY
M
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 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.
I N D I E LI FE 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, “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.
N EW POWE RHOUSE 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.
“We currently have about 250 people employed in Red Bull Powertrains, ” he says.
So what else will Red Bull Powertrains work on? “Nothing. It’s purely F1. We could accommodate a track car, but this is the first facility like this since Mercedes HPP, set up bespoke to do F1 engines. It’s the next chapter for the team and business. ”
Bear in mind that each F1 car is limited to the use of just three internal combustion engines per season. The staff-to-product ratio in F1 is astonishing.
But will Red Bull’s new indie status be short-lived? Speculation over a 2026 deal with Porsche remains rife.
But if Red Bull is to be responsible for the design and building of powertrains, what would Porsche do? What would a car maker with its own proud sporting record get out of such a partnership?
NO HANGOVE R For many, Verstappen’s first F1 title is tainted by the Abu Dhabi Grand Prix controversy that has cost F1 race director Michael Masi his job. Horner dismisses any suggestion of a hangover into the new season, however.
“We did nothing wrong, ” he points out. “We made the right calls strategically. One could argue that Mercedes made a mistake by leaving Lewis [Hamilton] out on 44-lap-old tyres that he was always going to be exposed on. A lot of smoke has been
New champion Max Verstappen has signed to 2028 GOOD WEEK
GEORGE GAMBLE The ex-Porsche Carrera Cup racer has landed a drive in the British Touring Car Championship after an enforced financial lay-off from motorsport. Gamble, 25, steps up with Ciceley Motorsport to race alongside Adam Morgan in the team’s pair of BMW 330e M Sports.
NIKITA MAZEPIN The Haas F1 team turned its back on the Russian driver and his father’s Uralkali roubles in direct reaction to Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. Harsh on a sportsman just minding his own business? Absolutely not when Mazepin senior has direct ties to Russian president Vladimir Putin.
BAD WEEK
created around what was a tactical error that we got right. Max still had to make the pass, to get the job done, and he did that. ”
Horner insists “the biggest winner last year was the sport” , as Mercedes was beaten for the first time since the hybrid era began in 2014.
This increasingly bitter rivalry isn’t a fiction created for the TV cameras. Horner rates 2021 as the “most intense and rewarding” season he has experienced.
Now F1’s heavyweights are stepping back into the ring. Seconds out, round two.
TOP STEP Pennzoil Las Vegas 400
ALEX BOWMAN GAVE full credit to his crew chief Greg Ives for his seventh top-tier Nascar Cup Series victory in the recent Pennzoil 400 at Las Vegas Motor Speedway.
Bowman jumped from fourth to second in the final round of pit stops before an ‘overtime’ restart, as Ives gambled on fitting just two fresh tyres to the Chevrolet. It paid off as Bowman faced off against Hendrick team-mate Kyle Larson, the former heading the inside lane, the latter the outside. The pair remained abreast as they started the last lap, with Bowman striking for home out of the final turn four.
“This thing was so fast all day, I just never really had the track position we needed to show it, ” said Bowman. “But man, what a call by Greg Ives and the guys to take two there. Obviously, it paid off. ”
Reigning champion Larson led Martin Truex Jr at the top of the standings after three races.
First three 2022 Cup races had three different winners
Bowman (with oval face) beat colleague (around oval track)
MOTORSPORT GREATS MIK A H A K K INEN
He didn’t say much, but Mika Häkkinen’s talent spoke volumes as Formula 1’s ultimate flying Finn beat Michael Schumacher to the 1998 and 1999 titles. Häkkinen served his F1 apprenticeship at ailing Team Lotus before signing as a test driver for McLaren. When Michael Andretti’s campaign stalled in 1993, Häkkinen stepped in at Estoril – and promptly out-qualified team-mate Ayrton Senna. He nearly died in an awful practice crash in Adelaide two years later but showed incredible resilience to come back, and when Adrian Newey provided him with a top-line car in 1998, he found his wings. Schumacher always said Häkkinen was his greatest rival, and he was no pushover either. When the Ferrari put the McLaren on the grass at nearly 200mph at Spa in 2000, Häkkinen composed himself, then pulled off one of the great F1 passes on the next lap. Afterwards he had a quiet word… but didn’t make a fuss. That wasn’t his way.
