Brundle hails Red Bull’s ‘unbelievable’ engine development for 2026 F1 season

Martin Brundle has said Red Bull have done an "unbelievable" job with their engine development for the 2026 Formula 1 season.

A long-term strategic technical partnership was signed between Red Bull and American manufacturer Ford, with the pair working together to create power units until at least 2030.

The Red Bull Ford powertrain will be the first power unit developed by the Austrian team, and it will be used by Red Bull and its sister team Racing Bulls in 2026.

During its first test at the Circuit de Barcelona-Catalunya, over 500 laps were completed between both teams, and Brundle was highly impressed with the work done by the six-time World Champions.

Isack Hadjar behind the wheel of the RB22 in Barcelona - Photo: Red Bull Content Pool

"They've done really well, haven't they?" the Brit said while speaking on Sky Sports F1.

"I remember Christian Horner took me around the engine factory more than one and a half years ago, and I thought, 'My God, this is unbelievable!'

"The scale of it, the number of people and the facilities and the dynos they had there, so I'm not that surprised, if I'm honest. I know they're new to Formula 1 power units, but they've a lot of good people there, a lot of resource and it's a great facility."

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Brundle points to Red Bull and Mercedes as 2026 leaders 

With the overhaul of regulations, the biggest talking point surrounds the power units and their reliability for each team.

Red Bull and Mercedes will supply their engines to other teams in 2026, giving them the "upper hand", according to Brundle, while also pointing out that other teams may struggle.

"Ferrari looks pretty solid as well. I think the teams that have the biggest challenge, for example, Aston Martin with Honda, because there's only one of them, and Audi. There's only one of them," continued Brundle.

Lewis Hamilton led the way at the end of the first winter test in Barcelona - Photo: Ferrari

"At least Red Bull has the two teams with the power unit, and Mercedes will eventually have four teams charging round, so their learning capacity, their rate of gain will be higher, I believe. So that bodes very well for those four teams eventually.

"But I am very impressed by how the teams have largely got their acts together and just got on with it."

Plenty of questions will be answered after the second bout of winter testing, taking place in Bahrain on February 11-13.

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