Red Bull eyes the ICE as F1 2026’s real battleground
Red Bull Powertrains thinks the fight that matters most in the new hybrid era won’t be in the flashy electrical bits—it’ll be in the old-school core of the engine. As homologation for F1’s 2026 power units looms, RBPT technical director Ben Hodgkinson is convinced the internal combustion engine, and how it’s married to the fuel, will separate the heroes from the also-rans.
With the FIA’s submission deadline just weeks away on March 1, the manufacturers are about to lock in architectures for a five-year cycle tightly governed by upgrade windows and prescriptive rules. There’s even a calibrated safety net—the Additional Development and Upgrade Opportunities—for anyone who misses the mark. But within those fences, Hodgkinson sees room to race.
On the electrical side, he expects convergence. The new rules push the split roughly 50:50 between the V6 and the energy recovery systems, with a 350 kW MGU-K that’s almost three times the wallop of the outgoing hybrids. Yet Hodgkinson reckons most players will land in a similar place with power electronics and motor efficiency. The real lap time? That’ll live in the combustion.
“On ERS, everyone’s going to be 99% there,” is the gist from RBPT’s engine boss. “Where you’ll see daylight is the ICE—how hard you can run it, how cleanly you can burn it, and how well your fuel partner helps unlock that.”
That last part is no throwaway line. Sustainable fuel becomes standard in 2026. It’s not simply a swap from pump gas to green juice; it changes the physics. The new blends are built from components with different evaporation points, which complicates how the fuel vaporizes and burns. The neat, narrow window of the old fossil fuels disappears, replaced by a messier, hotter combustion environment. Getting that to behave under F1 loads and temperatures is a sharp engineering test—and it goes straight to performance and reliability.
Hodgkinson calls it an “enjoyable challenge,” the kind that forces creativity and discipline in equal measure. It’s also where the ExxonMobil partnership becomes crucial, as fuel formulation and hardware development now live in the same room. If the combustion chamber is running hotter than ever, the calibration, cooling, materials and even the plugs are on the hook. In other words, the ICE isn’t just the engine anymore; it’s the whole ecosystem around it.
Red Bull’s first 2026-spec power unit is set to turn a wheel on track later this month, a milestone that arrives at the end of a long, quiet grind in Milton Keynes. Internally, RBPT calls this the sixth generation of its prototype line—iteration by iteration, refining the concept long before the public sees a single dyno curve.
Hodgkinson, poached from Mercedes High Performance Powertrains in 2022, has been the project’s compass. He walked into a clean sheet and helped build a manufacturer from scratch, right down to the test cells and the headcount. That startup feel hasn’t worn off.
“There’s something unique about a group that’s built this place from the ground up,” he says. “The ownership is intense. You can feel it in every department.”
There’s been change at the top along the way. Christian Horner, who played a central role in assembling and sharpening RBPT through its formative years, stepped away in July 2025. Senior Red Bull management, including Oliver Mintzlaff, continue to credit his hand in the structure that now exists. Laurent Mekies, promoted in the reshuffle, has since taken on a larger brief as the project tilts from build mode to race mode.
Hodgkinson won’t be drawn into bold predictions. His favorite analogy frames it as a lonely 400-metre sprint—flat out, no crowd, and no idea how fast the others are running in their own stadiums. He knows what a good engine company looks like; he’s spent a career inside them. The point now is making sure this one behaves like that when it matters.
If you’re looking for the early tell on who’s nailed 2026, watch the ICE and the fuel. ERS deployment will be big, overtaking modes will steal the headlines, and battery output numbers will light up the graphics. But the teams that can light the charge cleanly and keep it lit—without cooking the engine or tripping reliability—will own the corners that still decide lap time.
And yes, those Ford badges on Red Bull’s livery aren’t just for show. The partnership is about making all of this play together when there’s a stopwatch running and points on the line. The power war is about to start—in the hottest part of the car.
