Red Bull had brief talks with Ferrari about an engine deal before deciding to take over Honda's operation for 2022.
It was last October when the Japanese manufacturer suddenly announced their decision to leave Formula 1 after seven seasons at the end of this year.
In doing so, it left Red Bull, who only began using Honda power units at the start of 2019, facing a dilemma over whether to seek out another supplier or, as they will, take engine production in-house to Milton Keynes.
“We need a competitive engine and this is the best route,” team boss Christian Horner told Autocar.
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“Mercedes wouldn’t supply one and Renault didn’t want to supply one, so it didn’t leave us with a lot of choices.
“We’ve got to get on with it and make Toto [Wolff] rue that decision. Maybe one day he will need an engine from us!”
While Red Bull's in-house move was always seen as the most likely, Horner did confirm there was some initial interest from elsewhere.
"Probably the most willing was Ferrari, and we had some exploratory discussions," he revealed.
“But to be a customer, so to have to accept all the integration, particularly with the new regulations coming, would be a massively hard pill to swallow, so that’s when we started to explore the possibility of ‘okay, how do we take on this challenge in a Red Bull manner and see if we can put a deal together with Honda in the foreseeable future?’
"Having enjoyed a great relationship with Honda for the past couple of years and having sampled what that [manufacturer partnership] feels like, we took this opportunity to fully integrate the power unit into the technical team, on-site in Milton Keynes, and become the only team other than Ferrari to have everything under one roof
“It was a hell of a ballsy decision to go for it, but that’s Red Bull.”
