While Christian Horner may no longer be with Red Bull Racing, his fingerprints are still all over the team’s setup heading into their first full season without him as team principal.
This year, Red Bull will debut their own power units, following a deal struck with Ford.
Porsche were initially in the frame to supply engines, but under Horner’s guidance, the team ultimately opted for an agreement with the American automotive giants.
Horner had brought in a number of engineers from Mercedes to help build up Red Bull Powertrains before he was let go by the team following last year’s British Grand Prix.
Max Verstappen and new teammate Isack Hadjar are now gearing up for 2026 based on several key decisions Horner made before his departure.
Speaking about Red Bull’s first week of testing in Barcelona, Martin Brundle and Ted Kravitz noted that one of Horner’s promises to Verstappen already appears to have been fulfilled.
Martin Brundle backs Christian Horner’s view on Max Verstappen staying with Red Bull
On Sky Sports F1 Show, Kravitz said: “Martin, can we play the first round of ‘Was Christian Horner right?’
“And the first thing about ‘Was Christian Horner right?’ was that when he was trying to reassure Max Verstappen not to bail out to Mercedes, it’ll be fine.
“We don’t know who’s going to be good in 2026. Was Christian Horner right in that, actually, the Red Bull Powertrains engine is very good? It’s reliable.
“They have the compression ratio loophole, we think, even though they seem to be denying various bits of it. And the car looks amazing.
“Was Christian Horner right by reassuring Max that 2026 Red Bull will be OK?”
Brundle responded: “Well, it seems to be the way, doesn’t it?
“I think the power unit’s performed well in both teams and just looks like they’ve had a number of years now and huge amounts of money.
Martin Brundle backs Isack Hadjar after Red Bull crash in Barcelona
Verstappen took two turns behind the wheel of the RB22 in Barcelona, first on day two and then again on the final day, where he put in over 100 laps.
Hadjar topped the timesheets on the opening day at the Circuit de Catalunya, but on a wet second day, he ended up in the barriers, setting back Red Bull’s testing schedule.
The incident drew comparisons to Pierre Gasly’s early days with Red Bull when he also crashed during pre-season running.
Brundle defended Hadjar, saying: “I don’t think we should thrash Hadjar too much for sticking it in the hedge because I would imagine a few torque spikes in these cars until they smooth out, until they sort it out will not be at all unusual.
“We saw Lewis Hamilton spin off didn’t we earlier on today, that looked like the same sort of thing. So especially in wet conditions I’d imagine the power delivery needs quite a lot of smoothing out yet on all of them.”
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