Red Bull’s engine has come on leaps and bounds since the team joined Formula 1, with their reliability issues from their time with Renault now being a thing of the past.
The team’s decision to switch to Honda engines has paid dividends in recent seasons, with Max Verstappen winning back to back championships while the constructors’ title headed back to Milton Keynes last season after an eight year stay with Mercedes.
When the engine regulations undergo a major change in 2026, Red Bull will move on from their relationship with Honda to become powered by Red Bull Powertrains, a technically new entrant in the sport.
Teams such as Ferrari have questioned F1’s decision to consider Red Bull Powertrains as a new entrant, suggesting that this classification should only be used for the likes of Audi, who will be entering F1 completely fresh.
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It has been argued that as Red Bull have been in the sport for over a decade, they will simply use their knowledge from working with Honda to gain an advantage over the other teams while still getting the benefits of being a new entrant.
Red Bull team principal Christian Horner has now addressed these concerns, claiming that Red Bull are not learning anything from their current engine, as Honda deal with this exclusively.
“We have an agreement and great relationship with Honda until the end of 2025,” he said via RacingNews365.com.
“There’s no crossover of intellectual property, all the Honda engines are produced in Japan and everything on the RB Powertrains side is very much focused on 2026.
“So there is a clear Chinese wall between the two activities, but we’re obviously going to be working with Honda over the new few years to achieve the best results that we can.
“They are fully committed, so it is very straightforward, and the relationship with Honda concludes at the end of 2025.
“We have a homologated engine, so it’s effectively frozen.
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“Honda supply that engine, they own all of the IP, so we don’t see inside the engine or anything like that. We will be doing our best with Honda to try and defend and achieve further race wins and championships.”
It was rumoured that Ferrari initially refused to sign up to the new regulations as a result of these concerns surrounding Red Bull Powertrains.
The Scuderia have now reportedly reached an agreement with the FIA after expressing their concerns, resulting in them signing on for 2026 and beyond.