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Red Bull boss Christian Horner has poured cold water on suggestions that the Austrian team could supply power units to McLaren in 2026. The Austrian team will be starting their own operations from 2026 as their partnership with Honda will end after the 2025 F1 season.
In partnership with Ford, Red Bull are making their own power units as they take the next step towards becoming a works team. The Austrian team will also supply power units to AlphaTauri.
British engineer Rob Marshall, who previously worked with Red Bull, is set to join McLaren from the beginning of the 2024 season. There were suggestions that the deal for Marshall could be accompanied by an engine deal.
Christian Horner, however, is not too enthusiastic about supplying power units to other teams, as he flatly declined any such suggestion. He told media outlets (via RacingNews365.com):
“No, Rob [Marshall] is not going with an engine. Our plan at the moment is to supply two teams because we don’t want to overstretch ourselves in the first year. And of course, those teams are likely to be the two Red Bull-owned teams.”
McLaren boss, Andrea Stella, revealed that the team is already in advanced talks with the Mercedes HPP to power the team in 2026. He said:
“We had conversations with Red Bull a few months ago as part of the due diligence in exploring what’s available in the market in terms of power unit for 2026. But at the moment, we are quite advanced in our negotiations with HPP [Mercedes High Performance Powertrains], so there’s no conversation ongoing with Red Bull.”
A Red Bull-McLaren partnership in 2026 does not make much sense
Even though the Austrian team has continually exceeded the expectations from a beverage brand, it's hard to deny that putting trust in RBPT is far too risky at this stage.
This will be the team's first foray into power unit production and they will be going up against the might of Ferrari, Honda, Renault, and Mercedes. These are established car manufacturers and Red Bull will have to overcome massive odds as they begin their journey.
It wouldn't be a surprise if the team eventually succeeds, as they have done in other aspects of the sport, but doing so on the first attempt will be tough. Thus, it's probably a good decision for McLaren to stick with the more experienced Mercedes.
