Horner calls building Red Bull's F1 engine from scratch 'scary as hell' after race wins

Christian Horner has described building Red Bull’s Ford-partnered power unit from the ground up as ‘scary as hell’, after the engine claimed its first race victories in the 2026 Formula 1 season — despite Horner himself having been dismissed from the team a year before those wins arrived.

Horner was removed as Red Bull team principal following the 2025 British Grand Prix, with a run of poor results and off-track controversy ultimately costing him his role. Laurent Mekies, who had been leading the Racing Bulls sister team, was appointed as his replacement. Yet Horner had already been the driving force behind Red Bull’s decision to develop an in-house power unit in partnership with Ford, following Honda’s withdrawal from the championship.

That engine made its competitive debut in 2026 and has since been designated the benchmark internal combustion engine by the FIA. Max Verstappen gave it its maiden victory at Sepang, with a second win following in Singapore.

‘It was arguably the biggest challenge I had in my time at Red Bull, because it was from nothing,’ Horner said. ‘There was nothing there — 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.’

Horner added that seeing the engine win on its 16th race start filled him with ‘tremendous pride’, noting how easy it is to underestimate the difficulty of developing a power unit from scratch under what he called ‘the most complex set of engine regulations in the history of the sport’, while competing against manufacturers with decades of experience.

The interview coincides with the release of Horner’s memoir, Drive, in which he also claims that the late Niki Lauda approached him about becoming Mercedes team principal before Toto Wolff took the position.

On track, Red Bull heads to Austin sitting seven points behind McLaren in the fight for third place in the constructors’ championship.