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Red Bull boss Christian Horner and his McClaren counterpart Andrea Stella recently explained why McLaren CEO Zak Brown recently visited Red Bull's headquarters in Milton Keynes. The visit came as quite a surprise for many, as heads of F1 teams usually do not visit other teams' headquarters.
When Horner and Stella were asked about that during the team principals' press conference, Horner explained that Brown simply came over for lunch to discuss powertrain supplies with Red Bull.
As the Austrian-British team will soon start developing their own power units, it's safe to say that other teams might be interested in buying them too. The Red Bull team boss elaborated:
"I thought he was coming for lunch. It’s obvious as that, as a power unit manufacturer for 2026, it’s inevitable that discussions are going to be held regarding potential powertrain supply, and that’s only natural that we would speak with potential customers."
Stella added how the British team are planning for the future and talking to different power unit manufacturers for 2026. He said:
"We have a solid partnership with HPP. At the same time, it’s obvious that looking far forward, you want to understand what's available. So, I think that's natural. Shouldn't be too much of a surprise."
McLaren are currently buying power units from Mercedes. Although Mercedes powertrains are quite reliable and stable, the new 2026 power unit regulations might bring drastic changes to the sport. So, the British team might switch their power unit supplier if they're unable to perform at a high level and climb up the standings in the next few seasons.
Andrea Stella feels Ferrari and McLaren are not too different from each other
During the team principal's press conference before the Bahrain GP this weekend, Stella said that Ferrari and McLaren are not too different from each other.
As he has worked with both teams, Stella explained how the passion and drive to win is the same. The only difference is the infrastructure and the workforce, which is much larger at the Italian team. He said:
"Well, actually, I think that the two places operate in a more similar way than one can think. We are within the same regulations and the same objective, so that's not a surprise. The main difference, I found, is – it actually still persists – I think it's in the size of the infrastructure, the size of the workforce, which is obviously quite a lot larger at my previous team. But we are working on it. There's a lot of investment going on at McLaren, right, to fill this gap in terms of infrastructure and workforce."
Stella is one of the most successful engineers in F1. Before joining McClaren, he worked for Ferrari as a performance and race engineer for legendary drivers like Michael Schumacher and Fernando Alonso.
