Red Bull\u2019s engine partnership with Ford will bear fruit for both sides in the medium- to long term, believes Laurent Mekies.<\/p>\n
Red Bull Powertrains [RBPT] is working closely with US automotive giant Ford to create the power unit that will be in the back of the cars of its two F1 teams from 2026.<\/p>\n
Laurent Mekies: \u2018Foolish and naive\u2019 to think RBPT will be on top<\/p>\n
Want more PlanetF1.com coverage? Add us as a preferred source on Google<\/a> to your favourites list for news you can trust<\/p>\n F1 2026 marks the first year of competitive running for the Red Bull Powertrains project, the long-awaited engine department kicked off in 2022 by former Red Bull Racing team boss and CEO Christian Horner.<\/p>\n Four years on, Horner and Red Bull have split, but the project has continued unabated through several generations of power unit as the department, led by Ben Hodgkinson as technical director, has grown to a personnel count of several hundred.<\/p>\n This has been bolstered by a partnership with one of the US automotive industry\u2019s \u2018Big Three\u2019, with Ford coming on board as a strategic partner to Red Bull in early 2023.<\/p>\n With Laurent Mekies succeeding Horner in the role of overseeing the F1 team and the Powertrains company, his first full season in charge coincides with the competitive arrival of RBPT and Ford, with the sixth-generation power unit created at its own facility in Milton Keynes in the UK powering Red Bull Racing and sister squad, Racing Bulls.<\/p>\n It marks Ford\u2019s arrival back in F1 for the first time since the end of the 2004 season, when it sold its Jaguar team to the Red Bull company it has now partnered with.<\/p>\n With Mekies quickly getting up to speed with the project in the second half of 2025, following Red Bull<\/a>\u2018s split with Horner, he spoke of the scale of the challenge facing RBPT and Ford as the Milton Keynes-based squad enters the championship as a fully autonomous constructor for the first time in its history.<\/p>\n Revealing the RB22\u2019s new look at Ford\u2019s season launch event in Detroit, Mekies revealed just how the US manufacturer has already proven hugely beneficial to RBPT\u2019s operations.<\/p>\n \u201cThey have been helping us on many different topics, and that list of topics is expanding every day,\u201d he told\u00a0Bloomberg.<\/p>\n \u201cBut let me give you a couple of practical examples. Jim\u2019s [Farley, Ford CEO] team has unique advanced manufacturing capabilities that we use to produce some of the most critical parts of our engine, and not only are they able to manufacture these parts for us, but also they do it in less time than we would otherwise.<\/p>\n \u201cThat gives us a crucial\u2026 our business is a time-to-market business. We call it a time-to-race business.<\/p>\n \u201cWhen we are able to manufacture complex components in a shorter amount of time, at this incredible level of quality that we are looking for, that\u2019s a key competitive advantage.\u201d<\/p>\n With Ford\u2019s involvement very much a partnership that extends beyond a mere sponsorship arrangement or of simple logo placement, Hodgkinson explained just how, from a technical perspective, he has been able to lean on Ford\u2019s input in the creation of the power unit that\u2019s set to be homologated with the FIA on March 1st.<\/p>\n \u201cYeah, in all honesty, when I first got involved, Ford wasn\u2019t in the picture,\u201d he told select media, including PlanetF1.com, when asked about how the Ford relationship has evolved since he started with RBPT in 2022.<\/p>\n \u201cI think it was about a year in. We\u2019d built some factories, and we\u2019d got our first engine running.<\/p>\n \u201cI took the fact that they wanted to get involved as a real vote of confidence in where we\u2019d got to, actually, because they could see what we\u2019d done in not much more than 12 months, and wanted to be part of that.<\/p>\n \u201cIt was really important to Ford that they did it as partners, and so we got a few of their members of staff on site.<\/p>\n \u201cOne of the biggest challenges I had with putting everything together was finding that number of experts in such a short amount of time, and I definitely had some holes that Ford tried to help me fill. So that was very, very valuable indeed.<\/p>\n \u201cThen, Ford\u2019s manufacturing capability, I\u2019ve exploited some of that for sure. There\u2019s the direct metal laser centring that is something they\u2019ve helped me out with. It sort of replaces castings effectively and allows me to turn parts around much, much quicker than if I use traditional suppliers.\u201d<\/p>\n More on Red Bull in F1<\/p>\n Red Bull RB22 revealed in fresh images ahead of Barcelona pre-season testing<\/a><\/p>\n F1 2026 uncovered: The game-changing potential of \u2018Active Aero\u2019 revealed<\/a><\/p>\n While RBPT can benefit from Ford\u2019s manufacturing capabilities, the American manufacturer also benefits from the expertise inherent to a top-level F1 squad such as Red Bull.<\/p>\n \u201cThe tech transfer, this team that Laurent leads [is a] leader in aerodynamics, predictive failure components, and software control of the hybrid system and high-discharge batteries\u2026these are all core capabilities that we need for the next five to 10 years as a company,\u201d Farley told\u00a0Bloomberg.<\/p>\n \u201cSo the tech transfer is very relevant for us, like maybe four valves or overhead cams were in the 1960s, you know? But the tech transfer is totally different today.<\/p>\n \u201cFormula 1 is a complete digital sport, and that\u2019s where we\u2019re going as a company.<\/p>\n \u201cAlso, racing, especially in the off-road world, gives us credibility for customers, that the product they buy has real capability that\u2019s been tested in a way that a brand that doesn\u2019t race can\u2019t say.<\/p>\n \u201cThat\u2019s what Porsche and Ferrari knew for a long time \u2013 especially for us in the off-road world, this is really important. Racing is a fundamental part of our company\u2019s business, because to beat all the great off-road brands and to establish ourselves.<\/p>\n \u201cNow, we\u2019re twice Jeep sales in the US \u2013 to keep that going and keep growing the off-road brand, off-road racing into cars, Baja, is where our customers will say, \u2018Hey, that Ford has the real deal. It\u2019s the real deal. It\u2019s not a poser product\u2019.<\/p>\n \u201cSo racing is integral to our credibility as a company.\u201d<\/p>\n The benefits to both sides may be far-reaching and useful in both sporting and engineering arenas, but Mekies moved to downplay the possibility that the very first RBPT-Ford engine can be a standard-setter right from the start of the new regulation cycle.<\/p>\n Hodgkinson\u2019s pedigree includes a long and successful tenure at Mercedes, where he was a key cog in the creation of the hybrid power unit out of Mercedes\u2019 High-Performance Powertrains in Brixworth that dominated F1 upon its debut in 2014.<\/p>\n HPP evolved out of the long-established Ilmor company and facility, and Mekies warned that expecting a new company like RBPT to match the experience and inherent knowledge of the likes of HPP or Ferrari at its very first attempt could be a step too far.<\/p>\n \u201cYou will have to bear with us a little bit. The scale of the challenge is monumental,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n \u201cWe have started to design and build these engines in what was a field, you know?<\/p>\n \u201cWe\u2019ve made the factory, we\u2019ve bought the dyno, we\u2019ve put together an unbelievable group of people, and a group of partners such as Jim and his team.<\/p>\n \u201cIt would be foolish and naive to think that, from the first day, you are going to be at the same level as people who have been doing it for 90 years.<\/p>\n \u201cSo bear with us. It will give us a few sleepless nights. It will give us a few headaches. We feel we have the right people, the right tools, the right spirit across what Red Bull means and what Ford means. We will eventually come out on top, but the first few months will certainly be full of learning.\u201d<\/p>\n Want to be the first to know exclusive information from the F1 paddock? 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