Red Bull chief Christian Horner has rubbished rumours that the team are planning an engine partnership with McLaren.
The British outfit are currently supplied by Mercedes, having signed a three year deal in 2021. But ahead of the new 2026 engine regulations, team boss Zak Brown has this year visited the Red Bull Powertrains site in Milton Keynes to seemingly explore a potential partnership.
And in 2023, senior Red Bull designer Rob Marshall will join McLaren as a technical director. That move has prompted speculation of a bigger deal nearing between the two teams.
But Horner, 49, is having none of it. Red Bull are already supplying two engines to sister team AlphaTauri, and the Team Principle insisted they wouldn't be stretching their work load beyond that.
“No, Rob [Marshall] is not going with an engine,” he said, via Autosport. “Our plan at the moment is to supply two teams because we don’t want to overstretch ourselves in the first year. And of course, those teams are likely to be the two Red Bull-owned teams.”
Red Bull Powertrains and Ford are set to join forces for the 2026 season. And Honda, who are still supplying Red Bull with their power units despite their deal ending in 2021, will be back in F1 with Aston Martin.
Brown is desperate to have his team fighting at the front of the grid, with McLaren having not won a Championship since 2008. But they are struggling to get to grips amid F1's new era of regulations, with Lando Norris and Oscar Piastri languishing in 11th and 13th in the standings respectively.
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And Brown is all too aware of the ambitions of Norris. The British driver stated his intention to challenge for the title when he signed a lucrative new deal last year, tying him to McLaren until the end of 2025.
But with that notion yet to materialise, the 23-year-old has been frequently linked to move away. A mouth-watering partnership with Max Verstappen at Red Bull has been touted, while many pundits and fans also see him as the ideal long-term replacement for Lewis Hamilton at Mercedes.
And according to F1 presenter Tom Clarkson, Norris could be persuaded to join Audi when they become an official team at the start of 2026. Audi confirmed at last year's Belgian Grand Prix that they will join F1 when the new engine regulations come into play.
