Categories: F1 News, Reports and Race ResultsRed Bull Racing

Red Bull confirms 2016 engine deal

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Red Bull has signed an engine deal for the 2016 season, team principal Christian Horner has confirmed.

Following months of uncertainty regarding the team's future - during which time Red Bull held talks but was unable to secure a power unit supply deal from Mercedes, Ferrari or Honda - Horner has now confirmed a contract has been signed which secures an engine for next season.

“We’ve entered the world championship, we’ve signed a contract for an engine, but I can’t tell you what it’ll be or called at the moment," Horner told Sky Sports from the pit wall in Abu Dhabi.

“We’re announcing different partners – and we’ve some great partners to be announced in the week ahead – so yes we’ll be there unless something extremely untoward happens.”

However, Horner admitted there was unlikely to be an immediate improvement in terms of the power unit performance at the start of 2016.

“It’s an engine that will hopefully improve during the course of the year, so it’s going to be a tough start to the season for us but we’re confident we’ll make strides.”

It is understood that Red Bull has managed to reach an agreement with Renault to continue its partnership in to next season, though a final announcement is dependent on whether a takeover of the Lotus team goes through. Renault has been working on a takeover since the middle of this year but has yet to finalise a deal to return as a constructor.

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Andrew Lewin

Andrew first became a fan of Formula 1 during the time when Michael Schumacher and Damon Hill were stepping into the limelight after the era of Alain Prost, Nigel Mansell and Aryton Senna. He's been addicted ever since, and has been writing about the sport now for nearly a quarter of a century for a number of online news sites. He's also written professionally about GP2 (now Formula 2), GP3, IndyCar, World Rally Championship, MotoGP and NASCAR. In his other professional life, Andrew is a freelance writer, social media consultant, web developer/programmer, and digital specialist in the fields of accessibility, usability, IA, online communities and public sector procurement. He worked for many years in magazine production at Bauer Media, and for over a decade he was part of the digital media team at the UK government's communications department. Born and raised in Essex, Andrew currently lives and works in south-west London.