Red Bull Joins Hands With Ford For 2026 Engine Regulations

On the sidelines of the Red Bull RB19 launch, the Milton Keynes based team revealed that it had partnered with Ford for Red Bull powertrains for the 2026 engine regulations. At an event in New York on Friday, the defending world champions showed off its new livery but the case that was shown was basically a RB18. 

At the event, Red Bull also had the defending world driver’s champion, Max Verstappen and his teammate Sergio Perez. Red Bull had Ford CEO on stage to announce that it will be partnering with the legendary motorcar company for Red Bull Powertrains and will work on the next generation hybrid power unit as per the 2026 engine regulations. 

Ford is not only said to contribute heavily financially in the effort but will provide technological expertise for the battery and regeneration system. This also marks the return of Ford in F1 after 22 years as the last time it was in the sport was via Jaguar. 

"This will be a true strategic technical partnership; Ford will assist with battery and hybrid technology and much more to keep the team ahead of the competition," said team boss Christian Horner.

"I am already very excited about the possibilities that this partnership will offer both of us globally,” he added. 

Ford of course sold Jaguar to Indian major Tata Motors, but before that sold the F1 team to Red Bull. Red Bull since then has won 5 constructors championships and its drivers — Sebastian Vettel and Max Verstappen have won 6 drivers titles between them. 

Red Bull Powertrains was conceived in 2021 after Honda announced that it was leaving F1 to further invest in electric cars. While Honda has stayed on with Red Bull as an OEM partner for engines till 2025. Porsche was supposed to be investing and taking over from Honda, but that deal fell through as the Red Bull management didn’t want to cede control to the Volkswagen group board. 

While the main car hasn’t broken cover yet, it will be seen for the first time on February 23 for the pre-season tests in Bahrain at the Sakhir circuit.