Red Bull on "noise" over F1 engine trick: "Confident it's legal"

Red Bull is certain the compression ratio of its 2026 Formula 1 engine is within the regulations, as Red Bull Powertrains director Ben Hodgkinson says the recent controversy is "a lot of noise about nothing".

With Red Bull’s season launch in Detroit, the partnership between Red Bull Powertrains and Ford is officially being kicked off, although in practice work on the engine project has already been going for four years at the Red Bull Campus in Milton Keynes.

The question remains how competitive a newcomer can be from the start – especially given the increased share of electrical power and the relative inexperience of both Red Bull and Ford in this area, at least in Formula 1.

The challenges facing Red Bull ahead of F1 2026

In the build-up to winter testing in Barcelona, however, most of the attention has focused on the internal combustion engine, and more specifically on the compression ratio. It’s the ratio between the largest and smallest volume in the cylinder. Under the previous set of regulations that ratio was still 18:1, but for 2026 it has been reduced to 16:1 – among other reasons to make the rules more accessible for newcomers.

Other manufacturers have become aware that Mercedes and Red Bull Powertrains would comply with the 16:1 limit during static tests at ambient temperature – which, as it stands, is the only way the FIA checks it – but that they could achieve a higher ratio while running at higher temperatures.

Audi, Ferrari and Honda have collectively raised the issue with the FIA, after which it has been placed on the agenda for a meeting with technical experts on 22 January – which covers multiple topics, including the aero side of the new ruleset.

F1 2026 car renders

Ahead of the season launch, Red Bull Powertrains director Ben Hodgkinson told a select group of media, including Motorsport.com, that he is convinced Red Bull's new power unit is within the regulations.

“I think there's some nervousness from various power unit manufacturers that there might be some clever engineering going on in some teams,” he said. “I'm not quite sure how much of it to listen to, to be honest. I've been doing this a very long time and it's almost just noise. You just have to play your own race really.

“I know what we're doing, and I'm confident that what we're doing is legal. Of course, we've taken it right to the very limit of what the regulations allow. I'd be surprised if everyone hasn't done that. My honest feeling is that it's a lot of noise about nothing. I expect everyone's going to be sitting at 16, that's what I really expect.”

Mercedes and Red Bull under scrutiny over F1 2026 engine compression ratio

The crux of the matter is that different PU manufacturers refer to different parts of the technical regulations. Article C5.4.3 states that checks are carried out only when the engine is stationary and at ambient temperature, meaning Mercedes and Red Bull can argue that they are operating within those boundaries.

Rivals, however, point to Article C1.5, which states that “Formula 1 Cars must comply with these regulations in their entirety at all times during a competition.” Because the 16:1 compression ratio is explicitly mentioned, they believe this should also apply while running.

In general terms, Hodgkinson is not impressed by the compression ratio as it is included in the new PU rules. In his view, scaling it back for 2026 was a completely unnecessary step.

“From a purely technical point of view the compression ratio limit is too low,” he explained. “We have the technology to make the combustion fast enough, so the compression ratio is way too low. We could make 18:1 work with the speed of combustion that we've managed to get, which means there's performance in every tenth of a ratio that you can get. Every manufacturer should really be aiming at 15.999 as far as they dare when it's measured.”

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