As team look to salvage season, ‘crazy decision’ to take engine building in-house looks set to pay off and steer them back to the front of the grid
riven hard, driven fast is very much the norm in Formula One, on and off track, but even by the sport’s own standards the development of Red Bull’s in-house engine project has been exceptional. As is what it has delivered.
Walking through the gleaming corridors of the team’s bespoke engine manufacturing department at their Milton Keynes headquarters, it is all but impossible to conceive that only four years ago the area where the buildings stand was just empty space peppered with rubble.
The decision to build their own engines rather than continuing to buy customer units from other manufacturers ranks among the boldest steps Red Bull have ever undertaken. No little feat even for a team who have long revelled in carving their own path in F1.
When the project began in 2022, with the team under the leadership of Christian Horner, it was a step into the unknown with no guarantee of success, but with the promise of making the team entirely the master of every aspect of their cars and how they go racing. It is an advantage that cannot be overstated, with the design of engine and chassis playing to each other’s strengths rather than a chassis being built around a customer engine.
