DETROIT — Ford’s (F) imprint on this year’s Detroit Auto Show is big on racing — really big, as in the pinnacle of motorsports.
The company, along with partner Oracle Red Bull Racing and sister team Visa Cash App Racing Bulls, is set to reveal its latest F1 cars at Ford’s Season Launch event in Detroit on Thursday night.
Ford and Red Bull are partnering on engine development, a complicated affair in F1 where the power unit, as it is called, combines a turbocharged six-cylinder engine with hybrid battery power, plus all the software and tuning that go along with it.
Ford isn’t the only US automaker at the highest end of motorsport. General Motors’ (GM) entry into F1, Cadillac F1 Racing, hits the starting grid this year at the first race in March.
For Ford, racing is a major part of the business, not just a marketing exercise, as some have said of other brands getting into motorsports. That’s why the Dearborn, Mich.-based automaker unveiled two enthusiast products, the Mustang Dark Horse SC and Bronco RTR off-road SUV, at this year’s auto show.
The new Mustang Dark Horse SC sports car shown on display in Dearborn, Mich., on Jan. 15. · Pras Subramanian
“We’re going in a different direction now. We really want to connect our vehicles to racing,” Ford CEO Jim Farley told Yahoo Finance at the event’s Michigan Central Station venue. “We really feel like Porsche shouldn’t be the only brand having fun, and we’re going to do it in a Detroit way and differently. We want to make a stick shift, affordable V8 coupe.”
As for the Bronco, which saw sales surge nearly 35% last year, Ford and Farley want to lean more heavily into the big trends of off-road and overlanding. “We are not going to be stale trail people,” Farley said, noting that the company is currently racing and placing well in a souped-up Bronco version in the notoriously difficult Dakar Rally race in Saudi Arabia, happening now.
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Ford Racing’s Spanish driver Nani Roma and Spanish co-pilot Alex Haro compete in Stage 11 of the 48th edition of the Dakar Rally between Bisha and al-Henakiyah, Saudi Arabia, on Jan. 15. (Giuseppe Cacace/AFP via Getty Images) · GIUSEPPE CACACE via Getty Images
“That’s what’s fun about being in the car business. We want to challenge ourselves, to reinvent enthusiast products on and off-road in a way that maybe people didn’t expect,” Farley said.
The F1 powertrain tie-up with Red Bull represents another opportunity beyond marketing.
“The tech transfer is no longer four valves per cylinder and overhead cams. It’s now predictive failure components and software that we can put in a transit van, or more aero that we can put in the new affordable EV, or high-discharge batteries that we may use in a performance hybrid system,” Farley said about tech developed in F1 that trickles down to the traditional road-car business.
“The power unit is really to move that tech into our core products,” Farley said, with a special focus on batteries, software, and aerodynamics.
Ford’s main challenges in 2026, and that pesky trade deal A Ford Bronco RTR is displayed at the Ford exhibit on the show floor at the 2026 Detroit Auto Show on Jan. 14 in Detroit. The show features more than 40 brands of vehicles. (Bill Pugliano/Getty Images) · Bill Pugliano via Getty Images
While Farley, a racer himself, takes much pride and joy in Ford’s increased racing efforts, he still runs a multinational auto company — one that is facing challenges on multiple fronts.
Farley said Ford’s main challenges in 2026 are the rise of Chinese automakers in its global markets, pivoting away from full EVS to a partial electrification business, and, of course, the lingering effects of tariffs.
President Trump’s visit on Tuesday to speak at the Detroit Economic Club made a lot of headlines, but one stood out most for the auto industry: his assertion that the US doesn’t need the United States-Mexico-Canada Agreement (USMCA) and that the US doesn’t need Canadian-made cars.
Farley said leaving the free-trade agreement would spell trouble for Ford and other automakers that have relied on the certainty of having rules spelled out in the USMCA for multiyear capital spending plans.
President Trump speaks to (from left) Ford executive chair Bill Ford, Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent, Ford CEO Jim Farley, and Ford River Rouge plant manager Corey Williams during a tour of the Ford River Rouge complex on Jan. 13 in Dearborn, Mich. (AP Photo/Evan Vucci) · ASSOCIATED PRESS
Farley notes that negotiations on the USMCA will begin in the spring of this year and that the stakes are high for everyone.
“USMCA is critical for our country,” he said. “We developed a whole assembly of automobiles across all three countries. We need revisions to it. It’s not fit for purpose.”
Ford assembles one of its top-selling vehicles, the Maverick compact pickup, at its plant in Mexico.
Maverick aside, Farley noted that Ford is the most US-centric automaker among its competitors, and negotiations on the USMCA are still critical due to the volume of auto parts moving back and forth across the border.
“I think every customer should care deeply about USMCA,” he said.
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Pras Subramanian is Lead Auto Reporter for Yahoo Finance. You can follow him on X and on Instagram.
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