Porsche has abandoned plans to enter Formula 1 with Red Bull Racing in 2026, the company has announced.
Porsche and Red Bull have been in discussions for several months and plans were drawn up for the German corporation to take a stake in the company.
However discussions cooled in recent weeks with Red Bull not keen to give up a major share of its team.
On Friday, ahead of the Italian Grand Prix, a statement from Porsche outlined that the proposed alignment will not go ahead.
“In the course of the last few months, Dr. Ing. h.c. F. Porsche AG and Red Bull GmbH have held talks on the possibility of Porsche’s entry into Formula 1,” read a statement.
“The two companies have now jointly come to the conclusion that these talks will no longer be continued.
“The premise was always that a partnership would be based on an equal footing, which would include not only an engine partnership but also the team. This could not be achieved.
“With the finalised rule changes, the racing series nevertheless remains an attractive environment for Porsche, which will continue to be monitored.”
Porsche’s sister company, Audi, announced two weeks ago that it will enter Formula 1 as a power unit supplier from 2026, ahead of an anticipated buyout of Sauber Motorsport.
“Dr. Ing. h.c. F. Porsche AG ” and RBR.
Talking about a culture clash right there.
Red Bull definitely is obstinate (see Marko, Horner et al.) and Porsche is a well known company with a reputation and long heritage of racing, why should they accept second fiddle to a relatively new F1 team. This is how Williams declined by not maintaining a strong relationship with an engine supplier and it resulted in them being at the back of the grid. The Honda tech that Red Bull is running on now will not last without major investment and expertise which RBR does not have or can afford long term.
So, a very successful team, scoring what 5 WDCs and many WCCs over the last two decades, more than anything Porsche could only dream of in F1 – their last success was with Footwork… Look it up.. – should give up their autonomy and their proven successful way of operation because a new F1 engine manufacturer wants to rebadge someone else’s PU solely for marketing purposes? Are you real? They were only bringing money, not a PU. RBR doesn’t need money, and certainly no Management overhead. RBR is so much more successful as Porsche has ever been. Whatever they did elsewhere in motorsport is not important; F1 is totally different. Porsche has only well , what ..a few? WDCs as PU manufacturer? They have zero experience outside the engine area.
If anything, RBR doesn’t need anyone’s money; that should have been clear to you. They simply chose to continue to be autonomous, even more so than in the past by also in-sourcing PU design and manufacturing. The Mercedex (didnt want to provide engines), Renault (produced crap in the hybrid area) and Honda (step in, step out) history has contributed to that.
Precisely so.
As expected. No team wants to give up control of their team because they know theyll all be replaced in time. Weve seen it over and over again. New management always wants their own picks running the show.
Called this one as soon as it was announced, and I’ve been calling the VW-McLaren buyout for a few years now since Brown the Clown sold the Technology Centre and their historic car collection just to keep the doors open for a little while longer. Tick tock.
I call bullshit. If you throw enough of it at a wall, some will stick. Not unlike headlines along the lines of “King Tut’s Curse Strikes Again”, when somebody involved in the discovery died, sixty years later, in their eighties.