All the mid-season driver swaps Red Bull have made in their F1 history<\/a><\/p>\nRed Bull will produce its own engines for the first time next season via its in-house Powertrains division, which will work in collaboration with Ford in a deal announced in early 2023.<\/p>\n
And Mekies, who succeeded Christian Horner as the chief executive and team principal of the Red Bull Racing team in July, has teased that the team\u2019s relationship with Ford could see Ricciardo return to the paddock with Red Bull in 2026.<\/p>\n
Asked if the door is open for Ricciardo to return to Red Bull in some capacity, Mekies told Sky F1: \u201cIt\u2019s a family feeling to see Daniel getting back with Ford Racing as part of this adventure.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s a great feeling. It\u2019s one of the many examples in which we see how many connection points we have between our two companies, between the two projects.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019m sure everybody will love to see Daniel back in the paddock and we are perhaps going to have that sometime thanks to Ford Racing.\u201d<\/p>\n
In an open letter provided by Ford to PlanetF1.com, Ricciardo revealed that his relationship with the US manufacturer stepped up after Ford was announced as Red Bull\u2019s 2026 engine partner almost three years ago.<\/p>\n
Ricciardo wrote: \u201cTo all the Ford team members around the world, hey!<\/p>\n
\u201cI hope you\u2019ve all had a great summer (or winter for us Aussies) and are excited for the rest of 2025.<\/p>\n
\u201cI wanted to write you all a quick note to coincide with some exciting news.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhile my racing days are behind me, my love for anything with wheels will always remain high and for that I am proud to be partnering with Ford to become a Global Ford Racing Ambassador.<\/p>\n
\u201cI am going to be working closely with the Ford Racing team and specifically focus on the amazing Raptor brand and lifestyle that Raptor has become for many of Ford\u2019s customers.<\/p>\n
\u201cSo why now and why me?<\/p>\n
\u201cWhen I decided it was time to retire, I thought long and hard about finding the most authentic way to stay connected to the world of motorsports.<\/p>\n
\u201cFor me, racing was always about having fun. It made me happy and created memories that will last a lifetime.<\/p>\n
\u201cI was thinking back to my core memories with Ford.<\/p>\n
\u201cFirst, when I purchased a Raptor back in 2017 before I even owned a home in the US. Priorities, am I right?<\/p>\n
\u201cThen, shortly after Ford announced it was partnering with Oracle Red Bull Racing, I came over to Dearborn and met senior leaders like Jim Farley (we had a ton of fun and a lot of laughs) but also had the chance [to] peak [sic] behind the curtain and see what was happening within your design department. Damn impressive.<\/p>\n
\u201cI then visited the team in Cologne later that summer and had a great time meeting employees, watching a live crash test and answering questions in a Town Hall.<\/p>\n
\u201cThroughout all these occasions, Ford and its employees\u2019 passion for motorsports was very apparent.<\/p>\n
\u201cBut what excites me most is how you all continue to find ways of having fun while innovating.<\/p>\n
\u201cFord has built a proper business around motorsport and is using it to bring new technologies to your road cars. And nothing brings that to life better than the beloved Raptor.<\/p>\n
\u201cTaking my bias for \u2018American-made\u2019 and deep love for trucks out of the equation, Raptor is becoming a global powerhouse.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019m one of thousands of happy customers. Some of my favourite memories are road tripping behind the wheel of my Raptor and I can\u2019t wait to add to my existing Raptor ownership, plus meet the customers who are equally passionate about their vehicles.<\/p>\n
\u201cI couldn\u2019t be more excited for all the amazing drives ahead with Ford and for all the incredible projects Ford Racing has in its pipeline.<\/p>\n
\u201cFrom F1, to Dakar and from Le Mans to Bathurst, few companies have been at this for as long as you guys have.<\/p>\n
\u201cAnd from what I have seen, we have an incredible future ahead and I am so proud to be joining the team.<\/p>\n
\u201cSo, here\u2019s to the fun, the laughs and memories that lie ahead.<\/p>\n
\u201cDaniel\u201d<\/p>\n
Read next:\u00a0Why Adrian Newey\u2019s private Alonso talks are so important for Aston Martin<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Laurent Mekies has dropped a huge hint that Daniel Ricciardo could return to Red Bull in some capacity…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":137285,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[573],"tags":[64,63,827,817,813,816,818,57750,44,17165,918,85],"class_list":{"0":"post-137284","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-formula-1","8":"tag-au","9":"tag-australia","10":"tag-daniel-ricciardo","11":"tag-f1","12":"tag-formula-1","13":"tag-formula1","14":"tag-home-page","15":"tag-lauren-mekies","16":"tag-news","17":"tag-popular","18":"tag-red-bull","19":"tag-sports"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/137284","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=137284"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/137284\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/137285"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=137284"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=137284"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=137284"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}