Red Bull are expected to announce an engine deal with Porsche in the coming days, according to reports.
Red Bull’s current deal with Honda expires at the end of 2025, and it was renegotiated after the Austrian side were initially expected to buy Honda’s intellectual property.
This would enable them to make their own powertrains, but they did not have the means to build them, so the engines will continue to be manufactured in Japan.
The official name of the engine has already been submitted to the FIA, so the Honda engines are branded as Red Bull Powertrains.
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The idea was the to start building their own engines out of a new facility that has now been opened in Milton Keynes.
They planned to hire new staff and move them into the auxiliary building next to their current base, and they would operate in a similar way to Mercedes, Ferrari and Alpine – as a works team with two factories operating conjointly.
It appears that this new factory will still be used, but the work on Red Bull’s engines will once again be outsourced, this time to Porsche.
The German company, along with Audi, were given the go ahead by parent company Volkswagen to set about entering Formula 1 in 2026.
It was suspected initially that the pair would team up to make a powertrain, but it is now clear that, while Porsche want to make engines, Audi are keen to buy a team, at such time they may or may not use the Porsche engines that are set to be designed and built for Red Bull.
Autohebdo.fr believe that Red Bull will soon announce their new partnership with the German car maker, who have already started work on the power units ahead of the new concept in four years that will see the pinnacle of motorsport switch to carbon neutral fuels.
Due to the amount of time it takes to develop an engine, it would cost time and money to start now and try to catch up to Ferrari, Mercedes and Renault.
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As a result, starting behind now would set them back even further by 2026 from a financial and development perspective, so starting in four years’ time will allow them to begin on equal footing with the established manufacturers.
Audi are still thought to be in talks with Aston Martin over a possible takeover of Lawrence Stroll’s team in 2026.