{"id":97035,"date":"2025-05-13T03:41:14","date_gmt":"2025-05-13T03:41:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/97035\/"},"modified":"2025-05-13T03:41:14","modified_gmt":"2025-05-13T03:41:14","slug":"ford-drop-big-engine-power-tease-in-red-bull-breakthrough","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/97035\/","title":{"rendered":"Ford drop big engine power tease in Red Bull breakthrough"},"content":{"rendered":"

There are a handful of new power unit suppliers looking to enter Formula 1 for the 2026 season, introducing plenty of variables when it comes to predicting performance.<\/strong><\/p>\n

But when it comes to Ford \u2014 the American auto brand partnering with Red Bull Racing \u2014 things are apparently looking pretty great.<\/p>\n

Ford and Red Bull hitting power numbers, getting along<\/p>\n

After Honda announced its intentions to leave Formula 1, Red Bull Racing soon began scoping out potential new power unit suppliers.<\/p>\n

Even though Honda did eventually decide to remain in the sport, Red Bull had already launched Red Bull Powertrains, a company designed to ease the team into a post-Honda phase \u2014 and one that soon partnered with Ford.<\/p>\n

The American automaker had very reasonable aims when it first joined up with Red Bull: It intended to offer its expertise on the electronic components of the F1 power unit, allowing Red Bull to focus more on the combustion engine element.<\/p>\n

But as the partnership has evolved, so too has scope of the project, which now sees Ford taking on an even stronger developmental role.<\/p>\n

More on Ford and F1 2026:<\/p>\n

\ud83d\udc49\u00a0Revealed: What Red Bull are getting from Ford ahead of 2026 partnership<\/a><\/p>\n

\ud83d\udc49\u00a0F1 2026: Confirmed teams and power unit suppliers for F1\u2019s huge regulation changes<\/a><\/p>\n

And so far, progress has been smooth, Mark Rushbrook, global director at Ford Performance, told Motorsport<\/strong>.com\u2019s<\/strong> Dutch affiliate.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe partnership is actually getting stronger every day, from the first discussions and the moment the contract was signed, although the work had already started before that,\u201d Rushbrook explained.<\/p>\n

\u201cInitially the focus was on electrification,\u201d Rushbrook said.<\/p>\n

\u201cBut with our advanced manufacturing facility and our [3D] printing machines, we can make things in real time.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe are literally making things every day that come out of Dearborn, are shipped and are tested in the lab in Milton Keynes.\u201d<\/p>\n

That high level of manufacturer support has historically been critical to finding racing success, be it in Formula 1 or any other discipline. An F1 team may have impressive facilities, but those facilities often still pale in comparison to the sheer amount of resources on offer from major automakers.<\/p>\n

And it has been a massively promising start.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere is obviously still a lot of work to do and a lot to prove in terms of durability, but the partnership \u2014 the openness, the trust and the contribution from both sides \u2014 has been excellent so far,\u201d Rushbrook said.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s everything we hoped for and actually more than we expected.\u201d<\/p>\n

That\u2019s massively high praise, and it signals that Ford may become a hugely desirable PU provider in the future.<\/p>\n

Per Rushbrook, Ford and RBPT are already hitting their targets, even if there have been some delays.<\/p>\n

\u201cBut when it comes to achieving the power numbers, then absolutely,\u201d he said when asked if things were on track.<\/p>\n

\u201cThen it\u2019s about the reliability tests to match that. Do you achieve everything perfectly? No, but that\u2019s the reality of any programme.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt just happens as you go along and then it\u2019s about how you respond, in terms of urgency and in terms of the mindset of the people. So we respond to what we see.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen the engine develops and finds more power, then of course it\u2019s always about testing reliability. So it\u2019s: power, reliability, power, reliability.\u201d<\/p>\n

The initial power is there; now it\u2019s all about honing that craft.<\/p>\n

Read next:\u00a0Four things we learned from the final Brad Pitt F1 movie trailer<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"There are a handful of new power unit suppliers looking to enter Formula 1 for the 2026 season,…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":97036,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4103],"tags":[4199,548,707,4200,225,12,226,79,16,15],"class_list":{"0":"post-97035","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-f1","8":"tag-f1","9":"tag-ford","10":"tag-formula-1","11":"tag-formula1","12":"tag-home-page","13":"tag-news","14":"tag-red-bull","15":"tag-sports","16":"tag-uk","17":"tag-united-kingdom"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/114498455762957884","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/97035","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=97035"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/97035\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/97036"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=97035"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=97035"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=97035"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}