A crisis engulfe๊d Red Bull, after their domination ended and Mercedes took over, about which direction to go under the 2014 engine regulations.

Their suppliers Renault were almost replac🉐ed by Volkswagen (who own Audi) until a deal fell apart due to ౠa scandal.

“It wasn’t obvious, the way out,” team principal Christian Horner told thepodcast about their 🦩engine problems during Mercedes’ years on top.

“Everyone got used to winning, and suddenly you’rဣe not winning. And nobody likes that.

“We lost Vette🔜l. Even the owners were saying: ‘Maybe we will sell the team, maybe we𒊎 will sell to Audi’.

“﷽The shareholders, for the first time ever, Dietrich was saying ‘we can’t do this, we need anꦿ [original equipment manufacturer]’.

“Thankfully, Dieselgate🍨 came along and it stopp🦹ed that deal.”

Dieselgate was a scandal surroundin♊g Volkswagen’s emissions in 2015 w♔hich scuppered any plans they had to enter F1.

“But we came that clos🎃e to being 🤪Audi,” Horner remembered.

Eleven years꧂ later, Audi will join F1 by buying a stake in Sau𝓀ber, who will become their works entry.

Red Bull missed the chanꩵce to work with Audi but changed their trajectory by finding a different po🐽werhouse to supply their engines.

“Then Honda came𝄹 along. It was a ris🌼k but a calculated risk,” Horner said.

“We did a season with Toro Rosso f🐼irst, the engine was getting better and better. 

“Th༒e Honda guys had as much invested as we did, 🌜for it to work.

“The p൲roduct was coming, their herꦓitage in the sport was fantastic.

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

“The🦩re was nothing to lose. The engine was no worse than 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 promising us better. They’re still in the same situation n💙ow.

“Whereas Honda backed ꦺit up by investing. They knew, when theꩵy got Red Bull as a partner, the expectation was sky high.”

Red Bull then cre✅ated their Powertrains power unit manufacturing unit in 2021. They will continue to uꦓse Honda-produced engines until 2026.