Significant Honda and Renault claim made in exciting Red Bull Powertrains update

Red Bull’s chief engineer Paul Monaghan believes the move to become a fully autonomous F1 manufacturer has the potential to strengthen them beyond previous deals with power unit suppliers.

Red Bull part ways with Honda after the 2025 season in order to switch to a homegrown Red Bull Powertrains power unit supply, with the F1 team becoming fully independent as a manufacturer both in terms of chassis and engine.

Paul Monaghan: We have to make the RBPT project work

Red Bull Powertrains (RBPT) came about after Honda confirmed it would leave F1 as an official supplier after the 2021 season. The Japanese manufacturer powered Max Verstappen to the title that season, in its final race as a manufacturer, and agreed to stay on in F1 as an unofficial supplier as an engine freeze was introduced – negating the need for further research and development for a four-year period.

With Red Bull needing clarity on its future for a power unit supplier from 2026 for the start of the new regulation cycle, the decision was made to open up its own facility at the team’s Milton Keynes facility and, in partnership with Ford, the RBPT project has grown to the point where its first competitive offering is fewer than 18 months away from hitting the track in the back of a Red Bull F1 car.

Red Bull chief engineer Paul Monaghan has been with the team for almost two decades and has seen the team powered by several suppliers – Ferrari , Renault, and the current Honda supply.

Speaking to PlanetF1.com in a joint interview at the Belgian Grand Prix, Monaghan offered some insight into the scale of the challenges facing Red Bull to get RBPT up and running and fully in sync with the other operations of the F1 team at Milton Keynes.

“If you looked at it as team plus PU supplier – we’re changing PU, aren’t we? – the fact that you throw in a different set of regulations merely adds to the complexity,” he said.

“The work I have seen between the Red Bull chassis side and the Red Bull Powertrain side is as good, if not stronger, than I’ve seen with any of our power unit suppliers.”

While the Red Bull/Honda partnership has yielded plenty of success, Monaghan believes there’s an opportunity that, as an autonomous manufacturer for the first time in its history, Red Bull can become stronger once RBPT hits its stride.

“We’re very indebted and very grateful to Honda for everything they’ve done with us but, now we are all under one umbrella, I think the the opportunity to be better merged with the power unit is one that we can’t forget or give up or deny ourselves,” he said.

“If we want to be as strong as we can be in ’26, we have to make that project work. So the challenges are there but, equally, the scope to do, at least, as good a job if not a better one than we’ve enjoyed with Honda is there for us.”

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Given that there’s no turning back at this point, Monaghan said it’s now completely in Red Bull’s hands just how competitive it can be in the future – a very different situation from the Renault years when its lacklustre engine held the team back from being able to challenge for wins, as team boss Christian Horner frequently pointed out during that era.

“I think we will all take it with both hands and it’ll be… it’ll have its troubled days, it will have its good days,” Monaghan said.

“That’s our engine for 2026 and I think we can make it work. I think the people in the powertrain group are really committed to it, they’re clever people working hard – the ball’s in our court, isn’t it?”

As for 2025, the final year of the current regulations and the Honda power supply, Monaghan said he is finding it difficult to make predictions about how it might play out as teams have to weigh up the development put into the ’25 car or aim for a fresh start in ’26.

“2025? I don’t know how people will treat the transition year into ’26,” he said.

“We can begin work on the 2026 car in the wind tunnel and CFD environments from the first of January.

“So what will people do in terms of a 2025 car when it effectively lasts for one year into ’26, I think will be influential on how good your ’25 car really is but people might take the view they want to put more time on the ’26 car.

“Others, maybe one of our nearest opposition might think ‘We can really beat Red Bull in ’25’, and they might put more effort into it. That, I think, will make ’25 a little more unpredictable.

“How difficult will it be? That’s the bit I can’t tell you because how quick is our car relative to everybody else? If we start behind some others, we’ll have to put some effort in.”

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