The road to Ford’s F1 return with Red Bull: ‘I’m a great believer in fate’

This article is part of our Origin Stories series, an inside look at the backstories of the clubs, drivers, and people fueling the sport.

En route to Brazil, near the end of the 2022 season, Red Bull Formula One boss Christian Horner stopped off in the United States for a meeting that could be decisive for his team’s future.

Months earlier, talks to enter a partnership with Porsche had broken down. Red Bull was eager to find a new manufacturer partner to support its in-house engine program, Red Bull Powertrains, formed after Honda quit F1 at the end of 2021.

Horner sat in an office at Ford Motor Company’s headquarters in Dearborn, Michigan, for an important meeting. Discussions about an F1 project started with Mark Rushbrook, Ford’s motorsport boss, and appeared to be going well.

But this meeting also involved Bill Ford, the company chairman and great-grandson of its legendary founder, Henry Ford, and Jim Farley, its president and CEO. The stakes were that much higher.

Horner’s positive feeling was quickly confirmed. “I thought we were in good shape when Jim walked into the meeting in a Sergio Pérez cap,” he recalled in July this year. “(I thought) ‘OK, we’re looking pretty good here!’”

It paved the way for Red Bull and Ford to agree on a partnership that will start in 2026 when F1’s new engine regulations are introduced. The link-up will bring the American automotive giant back to the F1 grid after more than two decades away. Ford’s most recent involvement ended in 2004 when it sold its Jaguar team to Red Bull.

While 2026 is a couple of years away, the Red Bull Ford partnership is already working at pace, conscious of the significance of the new regulations and the scale of the project.

“Together with Ford, we have to succeed,” Horner said. “We can’t afford for this project not to succeed.”

Controlling its destiny

In October 2020, just 18 months after its first race as Red Bull’s engine partner, Honda announced that it would exit F1 at the end of the 2021 season.

The shock decision, taken to cut costs and shift toward electrification — and ultimately reversed three years later, when it signed a deal with Aston Martin starting in 2026 — left Red Bull at a crossroads. Trying to buy engines from its primary F1 rivals Ferrari or Mercedes would be awkward. Going back to previous partner Renault was not a viable move. Renault’s underperformance since 2014 sparked very public frustration from Red Bull.

So why not go it alone? Red Bull started exploring what it would take to make its own F1 engine. It would be a significant investment, but one that would give Red Bull control over its destiny instead of relying on a partner that, as Honda proved, could dip out of F1 at any moment.

“In the end, we decided that, actually, if we’re going to do it, we may as well do the whole thing,” Horner said.

While successful as an F1 team, Red Bull did not have the technical might or the existing knowledge base of its manufacturer rivals for making power units. Horner said it quickly became clear it was better strategically to partner with a car maker. “Because as an independent manufacturer, you miss out on the advantages that a Ferrari or a Mercedes or a Honda — who changed their mind — technically have.”

Porsche looked set to be Red Bull’s F1 partner of choice. The Volkswagen Group wanted to get the brand back into F1 by 2026, to enhance its rich motorsport heritage, including dominating F1 with McLaren in the mid-1980s. The talks approached a successful conclusion in the summer of 2022, but negotiations eventually broke down. Porsche had sought an ownership stake which Horner said Red Bull concluded “wasn’t the right route for the business.”

It left Red Bull back at square one, looking for a manufacturer partner. Then Horner, who said he is “a great believer in fate,” received an email from Rushbrook that changed everything. Ford wanted to come back to F1. Would Red Bull be interested in a conversation?

“It happened very, very quickly,” Horner said.

Jim Farley, CEO of Ford, Mark Rushbrook of Ford and Max Verstappen talk in the garage prior to the 2023 Miami GP. (Mark Thompson / Getty Images)

Right place, right time

F1’s appeal to manufacturers grew significantly for 2026. Its proposed power unit regulations aligned closer with global automotive trends through a greater focus on electrification and fully sustainable fuels. At the same time, the off-track boom in popularity made its marketing appeal greater than ever.

Mercedes and Ferrari were already on the grid. Honda planned to return with Aston Martin. Audi had announced a 2026 entry. Now, Ford also wanted to join the fray.

“When we saw what was happening in Formula One with the technical regulations, it was very aligned, giving us more of an opportunity to contribute and learn the innovation and tech transfer part of it,” Rushbrook said. “But certainly also the health of the sport, and the popularity globally and the diversity of the audience.”

It then became a question of how Ford would enter F1. It explored multiple options, including buying a team, as Audi did with Sauber, or developing a power unit division from scratch. Both would be very costly undertakings, and Ford’s previous struggles with owning Jaguar proved running an F1 operation had not been its strong suit. In five seasons, the team scored just two podium finishes before being sold to Red Bull at the end of 2004.

Nor did buying a team fit with Ford’s wider motorsport model.

“Yes, we’re in motorsports, but nowhere do we own or run the team,” Rushbrook said. “We always go with partners, whether it’s Dick Johnson Racing in Australia (Supercars), or Penske in NASCAR, or M-Sport in rally.”

The timing worked perfectly to commence talks with Red Bull. Upon hearing the Porsche deal was off, Rushbrook got a hold of Horner’s email address and sent an email mid-flight, setting the ball rolling toward a swift conclusion.

“We’d been through six months of discussion with Porsche. It didn’t play out,” Horner said. “I think from start to finish, it was literally 12 weeks to signing a contract (with Ford). The initial discussions with Mark, then Jim Farley and Bill Ford, basically there was a decision by the end of ’22 that this was the route forward.”

The new partnership, announced in February 2023 to coincide with Red Bull’s season launch, confirmed Ford’s commitment through the next cycle of power unit regulations, from 2026 to 2030.

The deal works for both sides. Ford returns to F1 after 22 years with a championship-winning team, benefitting from the technology transfer — F1 serves as a high-speed laboratory for future road car innovations — as well as the marketing might of F1, without the liability of a team or a total engine program. It will also be the only American manufacturer on the F1 grid in a boom period for the sport in the United States.

And in Ford, Red Bull would get a partner with the expertise and resources that could help its nascent engine program try to compete with the experience of Ferrari and Mercedes from the outset.

Red Bull’s Christian Horner and Ford’s Jim Farley speak at Red Bull’s 2023 season launch in New York. (Arturo Holmes / Getty Images for Oracle Red Bull Racing)

A partnership already in motion

The first Red Bull Ford powertrain won’t race in F1 for another 18 months, but that has not stopped both sides from accelerating the partnership.

The importance of the 2026 regulation overhaul, when the integration of the power unit into the car should have a huge impact on a team’s performance, means it is already a priority for F1’s manufacturers.

“Whilst ’26, probably to the fans, seems quite a way away, you’re going to be locking in decisions for your race engines within the next months,” Horner said. “For the design teams, it’s literally tomorrow.”

Red Bull Powertrains has been growing rapidly as a result, with a significant recruitment drive, including a number of personnel from rival F1 engine programs, and the construction of two new buildings on its Milton Keynes campus fully dedicated to the 2026 program. The initial Red Bull Ford power unit supply will be for the two Red Bull teams, Red Bull and RB, but the facility is built with the capability to provide a further two customer teams. Besides Ferrari, Red Bull is the only other team in F1 with its team and engine operation on the same site.

Although there isn’t any Ford branding on the Red Bull F1 car — the current engines are still Honda intellectual property, and a technical agreement remains in place until the end of 2025 — their marketing efforts are already underway. Max Verstappen and Sergio Pérez have already taken part in demonstration events driving Ford cars. Pérez took the Ford Red Bull SuperVan, an all-electric van producing the equivalent of over 1,400 bhp, up the famous Goodwood hill climb in July. Ford also supports one of Red Bull’s entries to F1 Academy, the all-women support series, and named Chloe Chambers as its driver for 2025 earlier this month. Even the road cars used by Red Bull team members on race weekends are Fords.

The true success of Red Bull and Ford’s partnership will be defined come 2026, when an early engine advantage could be crucial. Mercedes proved that at the start of the V6 hybrid power unit era in 2014 when it went on a record eight-season streak of constructors’ titles and dominated that era of F1.

Horner said he had “no illusions” that Red Bull and Ford will face anything but a big challenge for 2026, noting the “decades of experience” the likes of Mercedes and Ferrari have with their F1 engine projects.

“We’ve got three years of experience,” Horner said. “But we’ve got a huge amount of passion, we’ve got some great people, we’ve got great facilities, we’ve got great partners, and we’ve got all the attitude that has served us so well in the 120 race wins that we’ve achieved so far.

“It’ll be so rewarding when we add to that number with an engine that’s been designed, built, and manufactured here in Milton Keynes.”

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(Top photo of Christian Horner: Seth Wenig / AP)