Ford’s return to the Formula 1 grid this year with Red Bull Racing puts the car giant “back where it belongs”, according to its racing division chief, Will Ford, the great-great grandson of company founder Henry.

Speaking at Ford Racing’s season launch in Detroit, during which the 2026 liveries for the new Red Bull and Racing Bulls F1 challengers were revealed, Ford Racing boss Will Ford said that “22 years is too long” for the firm to be away from F1, adding: “The Blue Oval is back where it belongs.”

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While the liveries of the two teams were revealed, the actual cars themselves remain under wraps, with development progressing rapidly for the radical new regulations being introduced for this year.

Why Ford is back in F1

The Blue Oval is one of the most successful marques in F1 history, with its engines having taken 176 race wins and powered 13 drivers’ and 10 constructors’ championships. But it hasn’t had an official presence on the F1 grid since it sold the Jaguar Racing squad to Red Bull at the end of 2004.

Red Bull has established its own powertrain division to develop power units that its eponymous multiple title-winning outfit and sibling squad Racing Bulls will use from this season onwards – and in 2023 reached a tie-up with Ford. 

While the Red Bull Ford Powertrains division is based at the F1 team’s campus in Milton Keynes, Ford engineers have played an active role in the development of the new power unit, which mates a 1.6-litre turbocharged combustion engine with a large hybrid system.

Although Red Bull’s powertrain arm is leading the project, Ford insisted that the firm is playing a key role in the development of the new power unit, and that it will benefit its road car offerings.

“The high-voltage systems and battery software we are refining for 2026 are the literal blueprints for the trucks and cars our customers will drive every day,” said Will Ford. “We are Ford and aren’t only in F1 to collect trophies. We are there to engineer more capable Ford vehicles.”

How Red Bull and Ford will collaborate

Phil Prew, Red Bull Powertrains’ chief engineer – who previously worked for Mercedes-AMG’s engine programme and before that was Lewis Hamilton’s chief engineer at McLaren in his 2008 title-winning season – said the new 2026 rules package represented “the biggest shift in regulations the sport has ever seen”, with new chassis, powertrain and tyre rules.

Under the new rules, around half of the power an F1 car uses during a lap will come from the hybrid system, which is three times larger than on the previous cars. The hybrid system has an output of 470bhp.

Prew described Red Bull’s decision to develop its own chassis as being “born out of bold ambition”. The powertrain division was started from scratch in 2021, and now has around 700 staff. He described the partnership with Ford as “a very natural collaboration”, and said that the partnership has grown as the two firms have explored new possibilities. 

Christian Hertrich, Ford Racing’s chief powertrain engineer, insisted that the deal is “not a sticker exercise for us”. He cited 12 specific parts that Ford has developed for various elements of the power unit, but also said that Red Bull is drawing on Ford’s scale and engineering experience.

He added: “They bring an opposite mindset to us. We're a big behemoth that is maybe slow in some aspects, with lots of process and procedure. They bring creativity, innovation and speed. That can push us. We can bring methodical process. So it's a good partnership. 

“We're bringing different ideas together, all so we can get to the end goal by different approaches. They're bringing a culture of winning single-minded. We have vast expertise of manufacturing, and deep resources across the globe, while they're starting from nothing.”

Hertrich conceded that Ford is contributing only “a percentage” to the powertrain project, and wouldn’t be drawn on how many of the firm’s engineers were dedicated to F1. Ford has rotated staff to work at Red Bull Powertrains in Milton Keynes as needed, with four currently based there.

As well as developing certain parts, Red Bull has been able to draw on Ford’s experience. Hertrich said: “For an example, there was a there's a vibration issue with one of the components, so they asked: ‘What do we do?’ We have passenger cars where NVH [noise, vibration and harshness] is critical, and within an hour of bringing in one of our NVH guys, we’ve fixed the issue. It’s that sort of fluid, constant communication.”

The new 2026 Red Bull and Racing Bulls challengers are due to hit the track in pre-season testing later this month, with the opening race of the season taking place in Melbourne on 8 March.