On February 3, 2023, Red Bull announced that their new engine partner from 2026 onwards will be the American car manufacturing company, Ford. The Austrian and the American companies have a long history since the inception of the Red Bull team in the Formula One grid. The American conglomerate left the grid almost two decades ago. Hence, with the comeback in 2026 as the new engine partner of Red Bull Racing will bring back a lot of happy memories of Ford.
On the other hand, Boss Christian Horner‘s team would love to take as much help as possible from the American manufacturer. The Milton Keynes team has been facing a lot of issues with the cost cap since 2021, for which the FIA even penalized them for crossing the limit. However, there are a lot of things Horner and the team have to deal with before the upcoming 2023 season.
Red Bull Powertrains And New Problems
Until Ford starts acting as the new engine partner in 2026, Red Bull Racing is stuck with the Japanese manufacturer, Honda. With Honda, the Austrian team has had a tremendous success winning back-to-back world championships in 2021 and 2022. Hope to do a hattrick winning the upcoming season as well. Despite how successful the Red Bull-Honda partnership has been after the Japanese manufacturing company announced they would withdraw their team from the F1 circuit, Red Bull has been trying to build their engines.
That’s when the Red Bull Powertrains came into the picture. But now the Austrian team is facing new issues regarding spending extra on their division of powertrains. Every F1 team gets the privilege of maintaining balance. This help in making sure all the teams are on the same level regarding their cost cap budget. But after Ferrari, Mercedes, and Alpine teams came together to oppose the idea. The Austrian team won’t get the concession for the new division of powertrain. Hence, Horner’s team will lose the privilege.
According to the Italian newspaper La Gazzetta, “Red Bull finally had to give up as they won’t receive any concessions. The Milton Keynes team won’t even get the ‘new engine manufacturer’ status, either. It would immensely help them if they had gotten it before 2026. As that would be the debut season for the next generation of hybrid power units”. The newspaper also informed that the rivals were instrumental as they came in line to stand against the current champions.
La Gazzetta further reports that the Ferrari President, John Elkann took personal interest in this situation. He with the help of the CEO Benedetto Vigna regarding the Red Bull “concession” and “new engine partner status.” They also claimed that other than the Silver Arrows, Ferrari, and Alpine teams, there was one more team. The first manufacturer to sign the 2026 new engine pact and the true new manufacturer of F1 motorsport, Audi. The German Automotive Manufacturer Audi will have to start from scratch. As they will have to build a whole new unit before they embark on their journey in Formula One Motorsport.