McLaren in discussion with Red Bull for its future engines
While the McLaren team is committed with Mercedes until 2030, the team seems to be considering a collaboration with Red Bull for new engines as early as 2026. A surprising partnership considering the recent relationship between the two teams.
Recently, McLaren has attracted a lot of attention by approaching Red Bull for a potential collaboration on their car engines. After a visit to Red Bull’s headquarters, the McLaren team principal dropped some hints, notably about fairly regular contact. “I have an excellent relationship with Jim Farley (the director of Ford),” Zak Brown stated, as reported by Auto Motor und Sport. “We met last year, then visited the factory. That was before we decided to extend our contract with Mercedes.”
This initiative comes at a time when regulations on engines starting from the 2026 season are set to become more demanding, with an increase in the electrical power of the engines. This new development is pushing teams to review their technical partnerships to offer the best performance and remain competitive. This 300% increase poses considerable technical challenges for manufacturers. The stakes are even higher as each manufacturer wants to maintain an advantage over its rivals.
End of collaboration with Mercedes
Mercedes, the German team, must equally maintain this advantage as the others, especially after its recent performances in Formula 1. However, customer teams like McLaren and Williams have reservations about Mercedes’ ability to maintain high reliability standards.
Especially with rumors about Alpine’s negotiations with Mercedes that would increase the number of teams to supply for Mercedes.
The contract between Williams and Mercedes has been extended until 2031, and the team manager, James Vowles, has expressed concerns about a new contract. “We have already been working for a long time on the right concept for our car, in agreement with Mercedes,” he said. He also warned Alpine about their desire to collaborate with the German team. “No matter what you do, you will be at least six to twelve months behind in development.”
As a result, McLaren, although tied to Mercedes until 2030, is exploring other options. An option that could well be the Red Bull team, with technical support from Ford working on its own engine for 2026.
This move by McLaren has sparked mixed reactions, particularly from Red Bull, who were very surprised by the timing of this approach. With an incident in Spielberg involving Max Verstappen and Lando Norris, it’s difficult to consider collaboration at the moment.
Despite everything, Zak Brown wishes to consider all possible options to ensure that McLaren is able to compete at the highest level.
The partnership does not seem obvious
Beyond the battle between Max Verstappen and Lando Norris, the rumors that had circulated about Christian Horner regarding the harassment of a Red Bull employee also seem to be preventing him from signing a contract. Even if the investigation had not been pursued, Zak Brown is keeping his distance from the team.
As he himself stated, the team manager does not plan to go back to the Red Bull headquarters anytime soon.
