Red Bull F1 chief fires back as Mercedes engine war ramps up

Verstappen chasing Russell in Montreal — Photo: © IMAGO

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Red Bull chief fires back as Mercedes engine war ramps up

Red Bull will produce their own engines from 2026 onwards

Sheona Mountford F1 Journalist

Motorsport journalist working in F1 since 2024.

Saturday 17 January 2026 08:57

Red Bull's F1 engine chief Ben Hodgkinson has hit out at rivals Mercedes as their 2026 engine war ramps up.

While teams such as Mercedes and Ferrari have a long history of power unit production in F1, Red Bull will attempt to better their rivals for the first time with their maiden project the DM01.

An obtrusive question marks lingers over Red Bull entering the 2026 season, not only over whether their new power unit project will be a success, but whether it will also be enough to retain the services of Max Verstappen until 2028.

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However, if reports are to be believed about the strength of Mercedes' power unit, then there may be a changing of the guard at the top of the F1 order in 2026, and the continued persistence of Toto Wolff's pursuit of Verstappen.

Will Mercedes master 2026 regulations?

Speaking to the media about the hype around the Mercedes engine, Red Bull Powertrain's technical director Ben Hodgkinson addressed their rivals alleged advantage, and claimed it was fabricated from the team themselves.

"I think a lot of that talk originated from Mercedes themselves. My gran used to say, 'An empty can rattles the loudest'," he said.

"I think my real opinion, I probably can't say. There's quite a lot of noise in the press about the fact that it's believed that Mercedes are going to be the benchmark – a lot of them started by themselves, probably because the driver market is really tough and they wanted to try to attract people in a car that was currently not performing.

"So, you have to sort of layer it on the political positioning that everyone has to make. And then, of course, if you say the rumour enough, it starts being believed as a fact and then people start looking for reasons for it. That's a bit of a theory as to how it all happened."

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