What do you think RBR will end up with? Ford, Honda or their own powertrains?
Red Bull Racing Ford or Honda?
- Thread starter Bram Hengeveld
- Start date
Wow! I thought this was an April 1 discussion instead of an F1 topic! I thought Bram had checked in from a parallel universe.
Motorsport broke this story sox days ago. Reading some coverage on Jalopnik, FoMoCo would merely be a sponsor putting their name on the Red Bull powertrain similar to their branding of the Cosworth DFV for decades. As Christian Horner put it, RBR is on a trajectory to be like only the Scuderia to have all aspects of vehicle development at a single campus. It would be (in name rather than essence) Ford vs. Ferarri!
Lightning like this did strike before with Mercedes-Benz branding on the Ilmor pushrod V8s for Penske for Indy.
Red Bull / Alpha Tauri would get their cash for engine development with essentially no strings attached unlike a deal with Porsche who would like to have more say in competition and be more inclined to supply engines to other teams.
Yes, Virginia, there still is an internal combustion powered Mustang ponycar, but it's ot really clear what Ford would derive from exposure on an ICE hybrid. Add this to Ford extorting millions of dollars from dealers to commit to install EV infrastructure within a few months or be relegated to a lower rung of dealers who would only be able to place orders for EVs but not demonstrate or service them.
Perhaps Ford would be better served sponsoring Formula E or the E-xtreme offroad entries.
Motorsport broke this story sox days ago. Reading some coverage on Jalopnik, FoMoCo would merely be a sponsor putting their name on the Red Bull powertrain similar to their branding of the Cosworth DFV for decades. As Christian Horner put it, RBR is on a trajectory to be like only the Scuderia to have all aspects of vehicle development at a single campus. It would be (in name rather than essence) Ford vs. Ferarri!
Lightning like this did strike before with Mercedes-Benz branding on the Ilmor pushrod V8s for Penske for Indy.
Red Bull / Alpha Tauri would get their cash for engine development with essentially no strings attached unlike a deal with Porsche who would like to have more say in competition and be more inclined to supply engines to other teams.
Yes, Virginia, there still is an internal combustion powered Mustang ponycar, but it's ot really clear what Ford would derive from exposure on an ICE hybrid. Add this to Ford extorting millions of dollars from dealers to commit to install EV infrastructure within a few months or be relegated to a lower rung of dealers who would only be able to place orders for EVs but not demonstrate or service them.
Perhaps Ford would be better served sponsoring Formula E or the E-xtreme offroad entries.
Perhaps Red Bull can share chemistry between their drinks and F1 fuel.
Honda are a great engine builder (Political opinions on Japan and how they do buisness aside) The problem is they get into F1, strugle and as soon as they get it right they swing it along a couple of years and pull the plug. They have to many other programs to manage in other levels like Indy car Motorcycles touring cars. As a team you want somone who will take you to the top and stick around even if things fall backwards, this will happen after a long period of sucsess. Buisness is a wheel and the faster you make the wheel turn the more successful you are as a company. Small teams find the wheel seizes up and can barley turn it. Ford or Cosworth (Basicaly the same company) have to be ready to build a turbo engine. They failed to be able to do this in the 80's turbo eara. Something about stress on cam shaft braking the engine, or something like that. But Ford must be punting Turbo cars on the road and have more idea of the Turbo game and how to do it right this time.
Why is that?
I vaguely recall someone years ago claiming that Honda valued F1 involvement
more as a crucible for technical team development than for advertising/PR.
Becuse they have other projects with Honda powering cars in other racing programs. So they dump F1 when they are bogged down or need to free up money for financial reasons.In the next decade they will come back.
This has been true with any manufacturer involved in more than one series, always go with the best performing team. Porsche has dabbled in F1 and Indycar over the years but its sport car programs have always had priority; Toyota, Mercedes, Ford, Jaguar, and many others have shifted focus among different series ...invest the time and resources where you will get the most returns in money and publicity.
In any series a mid-pack team gets little publicity and is lucky to break even financially.
In any series a mid-pack team gets little publicity and is lucky to break even financially.
Ford returning to Formula One with Red Bull in 2026.
