Sometimes the riskiest decisions are the ones that rewrite history. And when a team chooses to build from scratch what everyone else prefers to buy, it is not just a technical move—it is an act of belief, ambition, and identity. Red Bull did exactly that when few truly believed it could succeed.
From empty ground to a power unit empire
Pushing to the absolute limit is standard practice in Formula 1, but even by the sport’s extreme standards, Red Bull’s internal power unit project is something extraordinary. Just four years ago, the area now occupied by Red Bull Powertrains in Milton Keynes was nothing more than empty land. Today, it is a state-of-the-art complex that looks like something out of an aerospace facility.
The decision to produce a proprietary engine, instead of continuing to rely on external manufacturers, stands as one of the boldest moves in the team’s history. It was a leap into the unknown, launched in 2022 under Christian Horner, with no guarantees—only a clear objective: total control over every component of the car. Chassis and engine designed together, not adapted to each other.
At the time, many predicted failure. Laurent Mekies recalls it as a “ghost” that hovered over the project. Renault and Honda, despite their experience, had struggled with the new regulations. Red Bull, meanwhile, was seen almost like a startup entering uncharted territory.
Yet today, Mekies can say:
“As crazy as that decision was, as crazy as that investment was, it has now put us in an incredible position for the next five to ten years.”
Total independence, strengthened by Ford’s involvement, has become a structural competitive advantage.
An impressive engine, a limiting chassis
Mekies admits that Mercedes, currently the benchmark, still holds a two to three-tenths advantage thanks to its power unit. And that is precisely what makes Red Bull’s achievement so remarkable: being so close on their very first attempt.
In the opening three races, the team has trailed Mercedes, Ferrari, and McLaren, but the deficit is not coming from the engine—it is coming from the chassis. On the power side, Red Bull has started strongly.
A visit to the facility with Ben Hodgkinson—who brings 27 years of Mercedes experience and now serves as Technical Director of Red Bull Ford Powertrains—confirms the scale of the operation. Hodgkinson describes the project as “bold and courageous”, one that attracts people with the same mindset. At the beginning, the team was hiring 25 people per month; today, the department has grown to 700 staff members. In the first quarter alone, 120 new employees joined across both engine and chassis operations.
The advantage? Building everything from zero. Even the test benches, installed inside prefabricated steel structures to accelerate development, are part of a system designed with clinical precision. The assembly rooms are so clean that a dropped wrench would echo like thunder. Every component is unpacked, cleaned, and analysed. There is a dedicated room just for crankshafts, another for oil analysis. It is an ecosystem designed to eliminate every possible margin of error.
Despite current challenges—an unstable car, Verstappen’s frustration, and a chassis still needing improvement—the engine project is an undeniable success.
“It has clearly exceeded expectations,” Mekies says.
“We started from a much more distant baseline. It is something that could have put the entire project at risk for two or three years.”
The “ghost of the power unit” no longer exists. The question that once loomed over Red Bull’s future—whether they would have a strong enough engine for the years ahead—has disappeared. Now the focus shifts to recovering those missing tenths in the chassis and fixing what needs to be fixed.
“It will happen,” Mekies says.
“Not in Miami, but it will happen.”
Red Bull’s revolution is not over—it has only just begun.
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