Porsche goes to McLaren with Red Bull Racing after “scrap”.

Red Bull Racing has indicated that Red Bull Racing does not wish to re-establish its factory partnership with Honda and appears to be coming to a decision to become the sport’s sole engine (and) manufacturer with the newly formed Red Bull powertrain factory.

German reports state that at the three-day Dutch GP, the decision was made to end the deal between RBR and Porsche because of a dispute between the two sides over who would have control of the team from 2026 – after an alleged 50 percent deal Acquisition of RBR from Porsche. According to these reports, Porsche wanted decision-making power.

Among all the rumours, the possibility of replacing Christian Horner in the team’s leadership with a man from Porsche has also been mentioned. But at Zandvoort, Horner explained that an agreement between the two sides would only work “on Red Bull’s terms”. And it seems that these conditions were not accepted by Porsche. Also, the conditions of Porsche are of course not from RBR.

At the same time, the Red Bull advisor Helmut Marko explained “Porsche will not become a partner in our team”, and adds: “There was never an agreement or legal obligation, so there was nothing to break. We’re the most attractive bride, but that doesn’t necessarily mean we want to get married. We couldn’t agree. We will not sell shares in Porsche. Besides, we are not the Porsche Supercup.”

Meanwhile, information from the UK says that Red Bull Racing does not wish to re-establish its factory partnership with Honda as a possible ‘Plan B’ and that it has now decided to become an F1 engine maker itself via Red Bull Powertrains – which, in talks with Porsche, it intends to do accommodate the F1 engine factory of the Zuffenhausener.

Horner seems to indirectly confirm this information as he said so at Zandvoort “In the deal we made with HRC, Honda put a foot in. But as far as we’re concerned, the train left the station.”. And Marco added to the reports of Honda’s return “it’s just a rumor” and the “We have every opportunity to build our own engines”.

Horner continued: “We have already said that we want to be an engine manufacturer ourselves from 2026. There were talks with Porsche, but we committed to building an engine, the very first Red Bull engine. It is a new and exciting chapter for Red Bull and whether we will proceed with a collaboration is under discussion.”

After all that, Porsche – having already decided to move into Formula 1 for good in 2026 – is looking for another team to work with and has reportedly turned its attention to McLaren.

The Woking team’s race director is Andreas Siddle, who held the same position at Porsche during the period when the German company dominated endurance racing and in particular the 24 Hours of LeMans.

But there’s a catch: McLaren and Porsche are commercial rivals — they each build ultra-luxury performance cars. But in the absence of any other alternative, this obstacle could – possibly – be overcome by adding broader cooperation to the agreement, which also includes both sides’ commercial vehicles.