Ford has confirmed it has further increased its involvement with Red Bull ahead of its partnership, which formally begins from next year’s Formula 1 season.
The American giants are making a return to F1 for the first time since 2004, when it sold its Jaguar Racing outfit to the Milton Keynes-based squad.
In that time, Red Bull has, of course, gone from strength to strength, amassing eight Drivers’ Championships and six Constructors’ Championships.
Its in-house powertrains department, since its inception in 2021, has been the operator of its existing Honda power units, which it continues to use until the end of this year.
The Japanese marque is making a full return to F1 next year, but with Aston Martin, in collaboration with former Red Bull man Adrian Newey, who will design its 2026 car.
Due to Ford’s long hiatus from F1, expectations have been lowered, with former Team Principal Christian Horner saying teams such as Mercedes should be “embarrassed” if it proves to be faster than them.
F1’s 2026 regulations will see an increase in electrification, with the V6 hybrids slated to have a 50-50 split between electric and internal combustion power.
It appeared that Ford’s interest would primarily be in the electric side, but Mark Rushbrook, Ford Global Motorsports’ Director, has confirmed in an interview with ‘MOTORSPORT aktuell’ that its involvement is expanding.
“We wanted to learn about electrification: battery cell chemistry, motors, inverters, calibration, control and how everything interacts with the combustion engine,” he said.
“We wanted to learn about optimising fuel efficiency,” he said.
“Initially, we didn’t want to be so involved in combustion engines, but now we are because we obviously still have a lot to learn in this area.
“Here, we mainly help with the production of parts. So now we are involved in almost the entire car – and also on the operational side.”
Growing Ford involvement good timing due to additional Red Bull inexperience
Given Red Bull Powertrains has only previously worked on existing engines from Honda, a development of a full powertrain of its own is naturally a whole new world.
This, coupled with Ford’s long hiatus from F1, is why Red Bull has already begun to lower its expectations for the coming year.
Prior to his exit, former Team Principal Christian Horner stated that teams such as Mercedes should be “embarrassed” if their package proves to be faster than theirs.
Rushbrook said that Ford is aware that Red Bull does not have the full resources despite its powerhouse status, and intimated that its involvement has been a relief.
“We were quite lucky with our timing as far as Red Bull was concerned,” said Rushbrook. “They had just decided to develop their own powertrain for 2026.
“It was still at a very early stage, but even then they realised that resources are limited, even for a large Formula 1 team. Especially since Milton Keynes had never developed its own engine before.”
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