Christian Horner has praised the Red Bull power unit department after it was judged to have the best engine at the start of the 2026 season.\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n
A recent FIA ruling under the ADUO (Additional Development and Upgrade Opportunities) system determined that the Milton Keynes-based squad had the strongest combustion engine in the field.\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n
It came as a surprise judgment, as this year is the first season Red Bull has entered its own power unit.\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n
However, a downside to the verdict is that the team is now ineligible to produce an upgrade to the engine this year, offering its rivals a chance to catch up.\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n
Horner, who departed the Red Bull team principal role this time last year, has admitted to being impressed by the early performance of the engine.\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n
\u201cDo you know what, seeing that engine… five years ago the factory used to make bubble wrap,\u201d Horner told Sky F1.\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n
\u201cTo be judged the best engine in F1 as a startup, I think those guys have done incredibly well.\u201d\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n
Horner added that compliments should be paid to Red Bull’s partners, highlighting it was a collective effort to get the engine to its current position.\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n
\u201cA big shout out to the partners there as well, Exxon Mobil, with the fuel that they provided, and Ford Motor Company,\u201d\u00a0he said.\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n
\u201cIt was a collective effort, and I think it’s underestimated what they’ve actually done.\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n
\u201cTo have an engine ahead of Ferrari, ahead of Honda, ahead of Audi, ahead of even Mercedes – nobody thought that was possible.\u201d\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Christian Horner has praised the Red Bull power unit department after it was judged to have the best…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":783632,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[572],"tags":[64,63,827,830,828,831,829,826,813,823,825,806,805,824,803,804,822,85],"class_list":["post-783631","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-motosport","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-daniel-ricciardo","tag-f1-calendar","tag-f1-live","tag-f1-results","tag-f1-standings","tag-ferrari","tag-formula-1","tag-lewis-hamilton","tag-max-verstappen","tag-motor","tag-motor-sports","tag-motorsport","tag-motosport","tag-motosports","tag-racing","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/783631","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=783631"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/783631\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/783632"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=783631"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=783631"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=783631"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}