Toto Wolff says Red Bull are climbing ‘Mount Everest’ thanks to one Christian Horner decision

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Red Bull were the second-highest scorers at the Dutch Grand Prix last weekend. A 20-point haul keeps them in touch with Mercedes and Ferrari in the championship.

George Russell was Mercedes’ sole scorer in fourth after Kimi Antonelli’s penalties, while Ferrari suffered a double DNF. Max Verstappen capitalised on an extremely rare retirement for McLaren driver Lando Norris to take second, and Yuki Tsunoda ended a scoreless streak in P9.

McLaren are out of sight, but Red Bull have now closed the gap on second-place Ferrari to 46 points. That keeps them just about in contention, but the likelihood remains that they finish fourth – their lowest position since 2015.

And heading into next year, Red Bull’s competitive prospects are more uncertain than ever. That’s partly to be expected given the major rule changes, but the Milton Keynes outfit are in a unique position.

Toto Wolff remembers Christian Horner rejecting Porsche engine deal

In an interview with GPBlog, Mercedes boss Toto Wolff was asked about Red Bull building their own engine next year. Since entering F1 in 2005, they have also been a customer team, working with Cosworth, Ferrari, Renault and Honda.

But they have now set up a Red Bull Powertrains division, a process Wolff likened to climbing ‘Mount Everest’. It looked at one stage as if they would be powered by Porsche.

However, Christian Horner torpedoed the Porsche deal, and Wolff hinted that Laurent Mekies would have to live with the consequences. The Germans haven’t been involved in F1 since the late ’80s, but they did win championships with McLaren, and they have been enormously successful across other motorsports.

“My first answer would be that’s Mount Everest to climb because our engine departments have grown over tens of years,” Wolff said.

“And I think how the Red Bull engine was born is because Christian wasn’t keen to have a Porsche relationship. So the deal, I think the deal was almost done, that Porsche would own 50% of the team, they would mirror the management side that Red Bull had in there, and they would provide the power unit

“And I think that was agreed between the two top guys, Wolfgang Porsche and Dietrich Mateschitz, and then that didn’t happen. And it didn’t happen because of the idea that Red Bull shouldn’t be dependent anymore on any other OEM or engine supplier. It should stand on its own legs, and that’s obviously something that Dietrich Mateschitz has done all his life.”

The F1 rule change that could save Red Bull next year

Still, Wolff is wary of ‘underestimating’ Red Bull ahead of the regulation changes. They may profit from ‘new ideas’, though Horner had boasted of how many hires they’d made from Mercedes.

And what’s more, F1 has introduced a ‘catch-up’ rule allowing manufacturers who are lagging behind additional development time. If there is a deficit to Mercedes as expected, it could allow them to catch-up long-term.

Many established F1 teams didn’t take Red Bull seriously when they first joined the sport, and they’ve gone on to win a total of 14 championships.

Wolff said: “Now, having said that, you can never underestimate anyone in this sport who has the firepower to build something from scratch with new ideas coming in, maybe different ways of thinking in terms of innovation, and come out with a product that can be a surprise. The odds are against them, but it could be that for whatever reason it flies.

“And even if it doesn’t, our engine regulations state today that if you’re outside of the two percent [mark] to the best power unit, you have more dyno allocation, so you can dig yourself out.

“Obviously that doesn’t happen over [a] race or two, and doesn’t happen over a season.

“[It’s] certainly a huge, huge challenge that they’ve given themselves by saying we’re doing our own engine, but remember when they took the chassis team over, everybody joked that an energy drink company is trying to compete with Ferrari and Mercedes, and God knows McLaren in Formula 1, and they won at the end. Maybe we’ll talk differently in five years.”

Max Verstappen could leave Red Bull for 2027 if they don’t deliver a contending car at the outset. Mercedes are seen as the early favourites for the new formula.