Red Bull have completed their first on-track running with a power unit developed in-house, marking a major milestone ahead of the 2026 Formula 1 season.
Red Bull Racing began their 2026 pre-season on Monday, starting a new era as the team prepares for its first season using a self-developed power unit from Red Bull Powertrains, created in partnership with Ford.
The five-day shakedown in Barcelona can be considered a successful debut for the project. Between Red Bull and its sister team Racing Bulls, more than 600 laps were completed across the test, which is a strong early signal of reliability for a power unit making its first appearance under the new regulations.
Reflecting on his running, Red Bull lead driver Max Verstappen underlined the importance of mileage and learning at this early stage, while keeping expectations in check.
The first morning (Tuesday) I didn’t get to do too many laps with the weather basically, but today (Friday) was good. I did a lot of laps, we learned a lot. Still a lot of things that we want to look into and do better, but that’s normal I guess. In general for us with the new engine, to do the amount of laps that we did is very nice and it’s a good start for us. So, yeah, positive, but it’s still very early days,” said Max Verstappen, according to the F1.com website.
“The engine is still a work in progress, but I think we’ve hit the ground running quite well with those things. It’s still a very complicated formula I think for everyone, so there’s still quite a bit of work to do, but it’s normal,” he added.