![]() When we started getting serious about EVs around three years ago, we realised that aero was going to be the most important differentiator in the physical product. "The most important thing is how we get the tech transfer. Here’s what Ford’s CEO Jim Farley told me. Plus, all the competencies Red Bull has developed in F1. And Ford? It gets to put the famous logo on a likely championship-winning F1 car, in an era when sustainable fuels and the push to carbon neutrality aligns with its own goals. No, it needs help with the 350kW electric motor and the associated software that’s core to the 2026 technical regulations. Having established its Powertrain division at its expanding Milton Keynes base, and presumably learnt a lot from its relationship with Honda, Red Bull doesn’t need Ford to conjure up a whole new engine. That was last August, so either Horner had one hell of a Plan B or things really do move fast in F1. Red Bull got very close to a deal with Porsche last year, but apparently that all went south because Porsche wanted equity, a big say in all future development, and perhaps even to replace Christian Horner with one of their own. (Though not F1 supremo Stefano Domenicali who decided at the precise moment he was called on stage that the optics weren’t quite right after all.) Is it worth elbowing the inevitable cynicism to one side and embracing the news?Īs my phone continued to vibrate with, erm, glass half-empty prognostications, the reality on the ground felt different, although the time-frame intrigued me. Now look at it… and as for these three races in the US, c’mon!" a friend and former industry insider messaged me as Ford CEO Jim Farley joined Red Bull Racing’s CEO Christian Horner onstage, alongside Max Verstappen, Sergio Perez and the team’s returning prodigal son, Daniel Ricciardo. ![]() Now the wheel has come – almost – full circle. ![]() Race wins and championships aplenty, and the emergence of perhaps the pre-eminent F1 team of the 21st century, alongside Mercedes-AMG. Ford’s patience soon ran out and it sold the team to Red Bull in November 2004 – yes, I was at that press conference too – and, well, we know what came next. I interviewed both at the time, and they were… tetchy, positivity evidently in scarce supply. Niki Lauda oversaw Jaguar F1 for a while, and hired Guenther Steiner as managing director. I was at that launch too, at the MCC cricket club if I remember rightly, in 2000. Ford then rebranded it as Jaguar F1, in an effort to boost its profile in those heady, cash-rich PAG days. ![]()
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