Red Bull boss Laurent Mekies has admitted there has been attention from "a lot of teams" about his outfit's power unit performance. Earlier this year, the FIA deemed Red Bull to have the strongest engine, a contentious decision given Mercedes were granted an upgrade as they were more than two per cent behind Red Bull's internal combustion engine performance. This year is the first season Red Bull, in collaboration with Ford, have built their own power unit which very few people expected to be competitive in 2026.
It is a contrast to the lack of performance in Aston Martin's Honda power unit which has left Fernando Alonso and Lance Stroll mostly fighting towards the rear of the grid. There have been rumours that Aston Martin were looking into their future with Honda and even the possibility of taking a Red Bull-Ford power unit. "We got a lot of unwanted positive publicity about the performance of our engine, and that came with certainly attentions from a lot of teams," said Mekies.
"Are we having any serious conversations with anyone to supply another team? No, we don't think we are ready for that. Is it set in stone for the next five years?
No, because I don't know what's going to happen in the next five years. "We still have plenty of work to do to improve the power unit, refine its integration into the car and reach the level of the top competitors. Only then can we consider supplying another team alongside Racing Bulls.
Nothing will change over the next year or so." Please use Chrome browser for a more accessible video player Mekies says the Red Bull-Ford Powertrains programme have done a "phenomenal job" after launching from "zero" in 2021 to build a competitive power unit in their first F1 season. "People realise it's a very good engine. However, we have our feet on the ground.
We think it's better to concentrate on Red Bull and Racing Bulls," he told Sky Sports F1. "We are, at the moment, you may see the cars on track running smoothly but the reality is it's days and nights, very hard work for everyone back at Milton Keynes to keep the teams in a reasonable condition to run. "It's still the first year with all these challenges, so in the near future we will concentrate on these two teams." Aston Martin have scored just seven points this season and are 10th in the Constructors' Championship, although Fernando Alonso says the team were on course for their best race yet on Sunday in Austin, if not for contact with Williams' Alex Albon.
Extract — continue reading at the source.
