Red Bull F1 team principal Christian Horner says negotiations to resume a close relationship with Honda would be a “logical and interesting” step but “not urgent”.
Honda officially withdrew from F1 at the end of 2021, but the 2022 model “Red Bull Powertrains” brand F1 power unit is still manufactured with Honda’s infrastructure.
Meanwhile, Red Bull is ramping up its own F1 engine operation for 2026.
“When Honda announced they were leaving F1, we changed our minds and decided to build our own engine,” Horner told Speed Week.
“There are obvious risks involved, so a partnership with a great company like Porsche was considered. It would have made perfect sense.”
“But at the same time, we’ve been able to bring together the best and brightest engineers in Formula 1 for our engine project. We’ve got the factory up and running in 55 weeks and already have the first V6 on the test bench.”
“We developed it completely ourselves. I think we have the skills to go our own way.”
Christian Horner said complete Ferrari-like independence was now in Red Bull’s DNA and insisted any cooperation with Porsche had to “respect these principles”.
“Porsche might have made sense, but it would have changed our team’s identity and integrity a lot.”
“In the future we will be the only team other than Ferrari to build the car and the engine in the same place. It’s the next chapter in our F1 history.”
Christian Horner has not ruled out a scenario where further negotiations between Red Bull F1 motorsport adviser Helmut Marko and Honda might lead to a deal.
“With the new rules for 2026, this is a completely new situation,” said Horner.
“Honda justified its exit by concentrating on electrifying its production cars, but the new regulations and the 50/50 split between internal combustion engines and electric motors creates an interesting new situation.”
“It would be logical and interesting to discuss the new situation with Honda, but it is not urgent.”
Category: F1 / red bull / honda f1
