Red Bull and Ford to revolutionize F1 with 2026 works deal?
Feb.3 - Red Bull team boss Christian Horner has jetted into New York where the energy drink-owned Formula 1 champions are expected to lift the lid on a 2026 works deal with Ford.
Ahead of Red Bull's 2023 team launch on Friday, the Italian news agency Ansa quoted from an official Ford press release that confirmed the deal.
However, it is believed the document should have been embargoed into later on Friday.
Red Bull Racing Team Principal Christian Horner
The statement quoted Ford's executive chairman William Ford as saying the Red Bull arrangement is "the beginning of an exciting new chapter" for the famous US carmaker.
"Ford returns to the pinnacle of the sport, bringing its long tradition of innovation, sustainability and electrification to one of the world's most visible venues," Ford added.
When asked about the premature media reports, which said Ford and Red Bull Powertrains would collaborate for a new F1 engine for 2026, a Ford spokesman told Austria's Kurier newspaper: "We do not comment on speculation."
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Honda - a love story, Ford - a business deal, my preference would have been Honda, but as in life you cant have everything, if this story is true of course? i hope this has no detrimental effect on the remaining years with Honda
An admission, Shrop', I didn't see this one coming. RB is currently top of the heap, but I would prefer a Ford lashup with an American team. For RB, this could be a mistake. Their success with Honda is huge. Change now to a new PU partnership?
I know I don't get it either, Ford must have a bigger wallet, guess those engineers at Sakura must be thinking, F88K Why do we bother, id say secretly Rb would have preferred to stay with Honda as it makes sense for Every reason, Obviously the numbers or egos did not match up, as you say i hope Rb don't come to regret this, do i sniff a Williams-Honda revival in some form or another.That being said , if Honda are upset, then they've only themselves to blame with there, We are leaving this isnt for us / To one years support/ To three years support/To registering intent to enter 26 season.I mean the last time we saw that many changes, It drove a c class taxi for a living..!
The Japanese mfgrs have always been a fickle bunch. Ford ranks, I think, 3rd in F1 race history and that might be a reason for RB interest. Long term commitment.
Admission. I miss Jaxwad. He still owes us a prognostication capitulation. Awardguy will never give up his deliberately antagonistic comments, but the Jaxter was fun.
I suspect you might be right on the long term commitment scenario theory, pretty easy to mask that by saying it was a % disagreement as to not upset Honda as they did with Renault
these changes could be interesting, Ford with Red Bull, Cadillac with Andretti, that would leave Honda an in with Haas, or if Andretti does not get confirmed for F1, could Cadillac join with Haas. Stiener said in his statement, that they have ability to build transmissions, and suspension, Dallara still build chassis, they would only need an engine. Cadillac seems to have a solid interest in this venture.
Unsurprising if indeed true & officially confirmed later today.
Edit: Now official, so I'm looking forward to how Ford's return & partnership with the RB-owned teams will fare.
If true, I don’t see Ford being just the engine supplier for long or only one Ford team. There’s deals to be done aplenty.
Ron did the deal with Honda, that they (Honda) wouldn't supply anyone else, be rather foolish of Rb not to have arranged a similar clause, if only for xxx years and , Ford will be supplying two teams , so a good benchmark and a period of stability for all concerned, if it comes about, obviously Honda werent/arent that bothered about the marketing value to them as a company post 25, but on the whole if they leave at end of 25, all in all a pretty successful 11yr stint id say.
Now all I have to do is calm Ror down , im expecting an onslaught about Oems to come any moment
2026 Powerplant rules indicate a change of greater magnitude than the current hybrid formula. It is an ideal opportunity for a manufacturer to enter F1. However it still may take a new manufacturer a couple of years to be competitive at the front of the field. It took Honda several years to become competitive but they did not start at the beginning of the new engine formula. With current testing rules, development all occurs with data from race weekends only so it takes a long time if your package needs tweaking. But everyone starting from 0 makes for an easier development. The greatest challenge for Ford will be meeting the durability constraints of current F1 rules. This is something new for them at this performance level. The last time Ford was involved in F1 Teams used two engines for practice, a qualifying engine and a race engine and had a spare already fitted in a spare car.
It's cool to see Ford back into F1. It's going to be interesting to see what Cadillac will do in F1 as well.
Oh the irony of it, Red Bull buy Jaguar(Ford) for £1, five years later they are top dog (Renault x 4), 13yrs after that(Honda x 2), they are taking Millions from Ford, Ford executives refused to answer questions from journalists regarding this lol ,for all Williams(25yrs since last WDC/WCC and Ferrari(15yrs since last WDC) bring/have given to the sport with cars/drivers/championships, the Fizzy drink boys make them look very silly
Re RB superiority. Perhaps too simple, but they've got Newey to build them, Horny to run the team and the corporate commitment to spend the $$$.
Spot on, Shrop', re the irony of the RB roots.