Former Red Bull team principal Christian Horner has admitted that building the team’s in-house power unit from scratch was “scary as hell”, after the engine claimed its first race wins this 2026 season. This comes despite him being axed from the team a year earlier.
Horner was removed from his position in Milton Keynes after the 2025 British Grand Prix. A bout of poor results and controversy led to this moment, with the Briton being eventually replaced by Laurent Mekies, who was, at the time, leading the Racing Bulls sister team. Horner, however, had been leading Red Bull’s partnership with Ford after Honda withdrew from the championship.
This Ford-partnered power unit hit the track for the first time this year and has since been labelled as the benchmark internal combustion engine by the FIA. Max Verstappen also gave the power unit its first win at Sepang, and another in Singapore.
Isack Hadjar, Red Bull Racing, Max Verstappen, Red Bull Racing, Laurent Mekies, Red Bull Racing Team Principal
Photo by: Red Bull Content Pool
Talking to Motorsport.com about his power train triumph, he said: “It was arguably the biggest challenge I had in my time at Red Bull, because it was from nothing. There was nothing there. [It was] a complete startup. To see the milestones that engine was achieving, producing [a] manufacturing facility, manufacturing pistons, machining cylinders out of solid blocks, it was amazing, the commitment that went into that project.
“It was scary as hell because we had no experience of building engines.”
He added: “The satisfaction of seeing that engine win in its 16th race in its first year, I take great pride in that. Tremendous pride in the people, what they have done and achieved, because in many respects it’s easy to underestimate the challenges of taking an engine from scratch, particularly within the most complex set of engine regulations in the history of the sport, and beating teams and manufacturers with so much more experience.”
The interview comes ahead of the release of Horner’s memoir, Drive, in which he also claims Niki Lauda tried to hire him as Mercedes team principal before Toto Wolff took the job.
Red Bull heads to Austin seven points behind McLaren in the battle for third in the constructors’ championship.
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