Zak Brown says "hats off" the Red Bull on their first ever Formula 1 power unit

Red Bull Racing took the decision to build their own F1 engines and partnered with Ford after Honda left them high and dry when they decided to leave F1 at the end of the 2021 season, that is, before they made a U-turn and returned but as a works partner to Aston Martin.

While Mercedes commanded attention with the 500 laps they accumulated over the course of the test in Barcelona, Red Bull impressed with their reliability despite not getting close to that number and also not going for headline lap times, which usually is a Ferrari specialty in pre-season testing. 

Many rivals have hailed the job Red Bull Ford Powertrains have done in their first attempt at building an F1 power unit, and Brown was the latest to express his admiration.

Speaking to the media, including GrandPrix247, on the day McLaren launched their 2026 F1 car livery, Brown was asked about the impressions he got from Barcelona.

He said: "The Red Bull-Ford engine seems very, very strong, so hats off to them. Not only did it seem to be very quick, but also very reliable."

However, reliability didn't appear to be an issue as was the case back in 2014 at the start of the first V6 turbo-hybrid era. Even Audi managed to do some mileage despite early test troubles.

Brown noted: "The reliability in general seemed to be very strong for very sophisticated, new, immature regulations that will develop over time. The amount of running everyone got in was impressive.

"So I think those are the things that stood out, the [Red Bull] Ford engine and the general reliability on what are very sophisticated new rules," he concluded.