Horner provides update on Red Bull car 2025: “Will be an evolution”

Red Bull Racing is currently having a difficult time in Formula 1. The team is therefore working on updates that it wants to introduce in Austin. In addition to the development of the RB20, the team from Milton Keynes is also working behind the scenes on the cars for 2025 and 2026. Christian Horner provides an update on this.

The Red Bull Racing team started 2024 excellently. The formation from Milton Keynes won seven of the first ten Grands Prix, but then lost the initiative. This had everything to do with the fact that McLaren was catching up enormously and Red Bull started to struggle enormously with its RB20. The reigning champion thus lost the lead in the constructors’ championship to McLaren, while Max Verstappen had to do everything he could to keep Lando Norris at bay.

The Austrian team is therefore working hard on updates, which will be introduced during the Grand Prix in Austin next week. The team of Max Verstappen and Sergio Perez hopes that the improvements will put an end to a series of eight races without a victory.

No major changes before 2025

However, Red Bull is not only working on improvements for the RB20, but is also busy in the background preparing for 2025 and 2026. Red Bull team boss Christian Horner indicates that the team from Milton Keynes will not make any major changes for 2025, which will be the last year with the current regulations.

“In this business you are always juggling and you have to put one foot in front of the other,” the British team boss told Motorsport-Total. “You can’t look too far into the future. In Formula 1, the long term means two and a half months, and what we learn this year is also relevant for next year. So next year’s car will be an evolution of this year’s car.” I mean, there are a lot of components from last year’s car that have been carried over to this year because with the way the budget cap works, there’s no point in adding anything unless there’s a significant performance improvement” , Horner explains.

Engine poses challenge for 2026

The 52-year-old team boss is also looking ahead to the 2026 Formula 1 season. From that year onwards, different regulations will come into force in the premier class of motorsport. The cars will be completely overhauled and new engine regulations will apply. According to Horner, these changes pose many challenges for Red Bull, but according to him the biggest challenge is the engine. The Austrian formation will use its own Formula 1 engine for the first time from 2026. “This is by far our biggest challenge,” says the Red Bull team boss. “We created a start-up company, recruited 600 people, built a factory, rolled out the process and brought together a group of people who worked in a Red Bull culture that was so successful on the chassis side.”

Horner is therefore happy with Ford, with which Red Bull is working on the 2026 engine. “We also have the advantage of having a great partner with Ford Motor Company. And this relationship works very well. In the short term it will [project, red.] inevitably be painful, but in the long run it is an advantage to have everything under one roof with engineers,” said the team boss. “We have already seen the benefit and difference of chassis and engine engineers actually sitting next to each other while We’re starting to integrate the ’26 engine into the ’26 car.”