Red Bull Motorsports
F1
How Red Bull and Ford’s new F1 engine could power success well beyond 2026
Next season, F1 will be powered by the most technically advanced and cleanest engines ever seen in motorsport. How are Red Bull rising to meet the challenge of building a new generation of power unit?
The 2026 F1 season will be run to a new set of rules, which place more emphasis on pure engine power. For Oracle Red Bull Racing, this represents a particularly big challenge: they have a proud history of building the best chassis on the grid, usually one enjoying a comprehensive aero package to maximise downforce and grip.
Having a car that’s supremely quick through corners has enabled drivers like Max Verstappen, Sebastian Vettel and Daniel Ricciardo to take victories even over cars with more horsepower.
Max Verstappen and Laurent Mekies in the Red Bull Racing garage
© Getty Images/Red Bull Content Pool
But it hasn’t always been straightforward for the Milton Keynes-based team. In 2014, a new set of rules effectively nullified their world-beating aerodynamics, and the Renault engine unit used by that generation of Red Bull car was short on power. What followed was several years where Red Bull Racing enjoyed the occasional victory but not enough consistency to challenge for a world championship. That changed in 2021 and, in 2022, with the return of ground-effect aero, Oracle Red Bull Racing dominated F1 in back-to-back record-breaking seasons.
It was no coincidence that Red Bull had also started manufacturing their own engines, taking control of their fate rather than remaining a customer of an engine supplier.
01
Why did Red Bull start making its own engines?
Until 2021, Red Bull Racing and the Faenza team had made their own chassis with Ferrari, Cosworth, Renault and Honda providing the power unit. However, the drawback is that those manufacturers can supply other teams or their own works teams. Meanwhile, full works teams have the advantage of designing a chassis around an engine built to their own spec.
In 2021, Red Bull took control of its fate by establishing Red Bull Powertrains and began building power units from an existing design from Honda, which has been used by Red Bull Racing and Racing Bulls throughout this decade. But the FIA’s freeze on engine development meant they couldn’t spend time looking at ways to innovate the power unit to unlock more grunt.
But in 2023, Red Bull Powertrains formed an exciting new partnership with Ford to develop the next generation of power unit to drive Red Bull Racing and Racing Bulls to the front of the pack. In 2026, Red Bull will make history as the first F1 team to go from making chassis to developing its own power unit.
Red Bull Racing are heading into a new era of F1 in 2026
© Getty Images/Red Bull Content Pool
02
Red Bull Powertrains and Ford working in partnership
Like Oracle Red Bull Racing, Ford boasts an impeccable F1 legacy. Like the storied Offenhauser “Offy” engine, the mighty Ford Cosworth DFV occupies a rare place in motorsport history, powering a who’s who of F1 drivers to 155 victories from 1967 until 1985. Powerful, reliable and affordable, the DFV offered plug-and-play reliability to generations of F1 teams.
Ford also established the Stewart Grand Prix team in the 90s, which morphed into Jaguar Racing before ultimately becoming the starting point for Red Bull Racing in 2005. Now the might of the Blue Oval is coming back to F1 to power a new generation of cleaner, greener machines.
03
How complicated are these new engines?
Like the existing engines, these new turbocharged hybrid power units generate their output from traditional internal combustion and energy recovery systems, such as the brakes. But the demands on them are much more exacting: they need to generate more than 1000hp using less fuel, and half of that output must be an electrical charge – that’s three times more electric power than the outgoing units.
Run on entirely sustainable fuels – so no fossil fuels will be burned – they will be carbon zero and use less than half the fuel used in 2013. They also need to be durable, as teams only have three units to use per car for an entire season. If they blow up, teams will pay a grid penalty. The pressure is on teams to find a power unit that is more economical, sustainable and more powerful than the engine it's replacing.
Laurent Mekies, Oracle Red Bull Racing team boss
© Getty Images/Red Bull Content Pool
04
Why is F1 introducing a new generation of engines?
F1 is driven by technology, and developing these new hybrids is a priority for automakers around the world. Learnings from the engines used in F1 will be applied to making the cars of the future. The explosion of interest in F1 as a sport, streaming series and now a movie also brings new investment in the world championship.
“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,” says Mark Rushbrook, Ford’s Head of Motorsport. “But certainly also the health of the sport, and the popularity globally and the diversity of the audience.”
As well as Ford, from 2026, Audi will be joining a grid already powered by Mercedes, Ferrari and Honda. By the end of the decade, Cadillac expect to be making their own engines.
But it’s very far from easy: Renault are leaving the sport as even its own Alpine team has opted for Mercedes power.
Red Bull Powertrains factory in Milton Keynes
© Getty Images/Red Bull Content Pool
05
Building Red Bull Powertrains from the ground up
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. They recruited Ben Hodgkinson to be the technical director of Red Bull Powertrains. He is joined by five more experts who will oversee the production line: Steve Blewett, production director; Omid Mostaghimi, chief engineer, electronics and energy recovery; Pip Clode, head of mechanical design for energy recovery; Anton Mayo, head of combustion power unit design; and Steve Brodie, leader of combustion engine operations.
Red Bull Powertrains operates out of a purpose-built 465sq metre factory within the same campus as Red Bull Racing. Racing Bulls now operate out of their factory in Faenza and a new home on the same campus, having outgrown their facility in nearby Bicester.
They will be joined by experts from Ford who will provide technical expertise in areas like combustion engine development, battery cell and electric motor technology, power unit control software and analytics.
Together, it means a formidable amount of racing expertise is concentrated in this corner of Buckinghamshire as the teams increasingly focus their efforts on building for next season.
Grégoire Munster puts the M-Sport Ford Puma Hybrid Rally1 through its paces
© Jaanus Ree/Red Bull Content Pool
Chloe Chambers in the IMSA Mustang Challenge
© Bob Chapman/Red Bull Content Pool
Mighty off road machine, the Ford Raptor T1+
© Kin Marcin/Red Bull Content Pool
Romain Dumas' Ford E-Transit Supervan was a surprise package
© Alex Carmichael/Carwow/Red Bull Content Pool
06
A partnership that takes motorsport to new levels
This is a partnership that runs far beyond the next season of F1 and brings Ford and Red Bull Motorsport together in a number of different endeavours; including the Dakar Rally and time trials with the awe-inspiring Ford SuperVan 4.2, which has already conquered the Pike’s Peak International Hill Climb. Plus, there’s WRC with the M-Sport Ford Puma Hybrid Rally1, 24 Hours of Le Mans and NASCAR.
The new Red Bull Ford Academy Programme is supporting driver Chloe Chambers in F1 Academy and gave her the chance to test her skills in the IMSA Mustang Challenge.
“This is such an exciting chapter in Ford’s history,” said Ford Motor Company CEO Jim Farley. “Over the past 20 years, Red Bull has succeeded in changing the landscape of Formula One, and it has done so by being determined to do things differently, an ethos that is very much emulated in the Red Bull Ford Powertrains partnership and with the title sponsorship of the Red Bull Ford Academy Programme.”
