Christian Horner provides Red Bull 2026 F1 engine project update amid rumours

Christian Horner insists Red Bull’s F1 2026 engine project is “hitting the targets” that have been set out.

F1 will switch to revised power unit regulations from 2026 that will see the MGU-H component dropped, with a greater emphasis placed on electric power provided by the MGU-K, and the adoption of sustainable fuels.

For the new regulation cycle, Red Bull and sister team RB will use engines developed by their in-house Red Bull Powertrains facility at Milton Keynes. Ford will be working with Red Bull to develop the next-gen power unit.

There have been suggestions that Red Bull are behind rival power unit manufacturers and rumours of set-backs, but Horner has moved to alleviate such concerns.

“We are hitting the targets that we're setting ourselves,” he told Motorsport.com.

“Now, how those targets stack up to our competitors is always difficult to know. But the effort that's going in behind the scenes is huge, because it is literally a race against the clock to the start of 2026.”

Horner continued: “With the engine, we're on an aggressive curve being a brand new power unit manufacturer. But the team is really rising to that challenge.

“Our facilities are complete, both from a test and development point of view with dynos and rig rooms, etc, and manufacturing capability.

“But two years in the engine world is a very small period of time. We're on a steep learning curve, but we're on that curve and where we would expect to be on that curve at this point in time.”

Red Bull potentially running into problems with their engine project has been cited as a possible reason for Max Verstappen to consider his future with the team. 

But the three-time world champion recently downplayed such fears, insisting it is far too early to be concerned.

“I mean, if I have to speculate about everything... I might be worried if I'm still alive tomorrow, right? So, I don't really worry about that too much,” Verstappen said

"Of course, I am in close contact with Christian about that and the people working there. Everyone's working flat out, so there is no need to panic about that. It's still not 2026.

"We know that it is a very big task, we don't take that lightly. And of course, with so many well-established engine manufacturers, we also don't think it's going to be easy to beat them.

"But we have a lot of good people working on the project and we're very excited about it. So time will tell, of course, where it's going to be."