A crisis engulfed Red Bull, after their domination ended and Mercedes took over, about which directi💟on to go unde🌸r the 2014 engine regulations.

Their suppliers Renault were almos🧸t replaced by Volkswagen (who own Audi) un😼til a deal fell apart due to a scandal.

“It wasn’t obviou🅰s, the way out,” team princꦉipal Christian Horner told thepodcast about their engine problems during Mercedes’ years on top.

“Everyonജe got ꦰused to winning, and suddenly you’re not winning. And nobody likes that.

“We lost Vettel. Even𓃲 the owners were saying: ‘Maybe we will♔ sell the team, maybe we will sell to Audi’.

“The shareho🤪lders, for the first time ever, Dietrich was saying ‘we can’t do this, we need an [original equipment manufacturer]’.

“Thankfulღly, Dieselgateꩲ came along and it stopped that deal.”

Dieselgate was a scandal 🌱surroundi💎ng Volkswagen’s emissions in 2015 which scuppered any plans they had to enter F1.

“But we came that close to being Audi,” Horner remem꧂bered.

Eleven years later, Audi will join꧟ F1 𒁏by buying a stake in Sauber, who will become their works entry.

Red Bull missed the chance to work w🧸ith Audi but ♉changed their trajectory by finding a different powerhouse to supply their engines.

“T♔hen Honda came along. It was a risk but a calculaꦬted risk,” Horner said.

“We did a season with Toro Rosso first, the engine was getting b🍷etter and better. 

“The Honda guys had as much invested as we did, for it to wo꧃rk.

“The product was coming, th🌳eir heritℱage in the sport was fantastic.

“We decided to go for it. It all came good.

“There was nothing to lose. The engine was no worse tha𒊎n Renault, and there was a lot more commitment that they were prepared to make.

“The safe option was to stay with what we 🏅knew, every year the Renault guys promis🏅ing us better. They’re still in the same situation now.

“Whereas H𝕴onda backed it up by investing. They kneꦦw, when they got Red Bull as a partner, the expectation was sky high.”

Red Bull then created their Pow🐠ertrains power unit manufacturing unit in 2021. They will continue to use Honda-produced engines until 2026.