Red Bull has large Ford boots to fill as it returns to the top flight of motorsport. Here is the Blue Oval’s Formula 1 history worth considering as they align with Max Verstappen for their comeback.The third most successful engine manufacturer in Formula 1 history, with 176 wins behind Ferrari on 250 and Mercedes on 239 at the end of 2025, Ford also powered no fewer than thirteen World Drivers’ Championships and ten World Constructors’ Championships across 37 years of competition. Now, the Blue Oval is back.Ironically, it is Red Bull and its offshoot Racing Bulls that will take Ford back to Formula 1. The fledgling Red Bull team acquired its entire operation from Ford in 2005. Sebastian Vettel, Max Verstappen, eight Drivers’ titles and six Constructors’ Championships later, that chapter is history. But what about Ford’s own Formula 1 story?
Although its engines had appeared in seven races before 1966, Ford officially entered Formula 1 as an engine supplier through its partnership with Cosworth in 1967. Founded in 1958 by former Lotus employees Mike Costin and Keith Duckworth, Cosworth initially built Coventry Climax racing engines. Development work followed on the road-going Lotus Elan and race cars from the Lotus 15 through to the 26, alongside Lotus Cortina engines and more.
Cosworth-designed cylinder heads soon became highly sought after, culminating in the 1966 gear-driven, double overhead camshaft, four-valve FVA. Lotus boss Colin Chapman convinced Ford to acquire the rights to the design. Included was a Cosworth V8, effectively two FVAs joined at a 90-degree angle to form a 3-litre V8.
The Ford Cosworth DFV remains Formula 1’s most successful engine
Lotus initially held exclusive rights to the Ford Cosworth DFV, replacing the team’s unreliable BRM H16 engines. Unveiled in April 1967 and raced just two months later in the all-new Lotus 49 at the Dutch Grand Prix, the DFV immediately transformed Formula 1. Jim Clark power-slid to a sensational debut victory at Zandvoort as the DFV began rewriting the sport’s history.
Clark won three more races in 1967 before claiming his final victory ahead of his tragic death in 1968. Team-mate Graham Hill went on to secure the 1968 Drivers’ Championship, with Lotus Ford taking the Constructors’ title. From that season, the DFV was no longer exclusive. It won eleven of twelve races, powering Jackie Stewart’s Matra, Denny Hulme and Bruce McLaren’s McLarens, and Jo Siffert’s Rob Walker Lotus.
The most successful Formula 1 race engine of all time, the Ford Cosworth DFV became the backbone of the grid. Privateer teams, the “garagisti” as Enzo Ferrari called them, built competitive chassis, bolted on a DFV and a Hewland gearbox, and went racing. Often, they beat the established manufacturers, Ferrari, Renault and Alfa Romeo included.
Continuously upgraded, the DFV went on to win 155 Grands Prix, twelve Drivers’ Championships and ten Constructors’ titles. Lotus, Matra, Tyrrell, McLaren, Williams and Brabham all won world championships with DFV power. Graham Hill, Jackie Stewart, Jochen Rindt, Emerson Fittipaldi, James Hunt, Mario Andretti, Alan Jones, Nelson Piquet and Keke Rosberg all claimed Drivers’ titles with Ford Cosworth engines.
Cosworth DFX. The second coming
Michele Alboreto scored the DFV’s final Formula 1 victory for Tyrrell at the 1983 Detroit Grand Prix. Martin Brundle was the last driver to race a DFV, at the 1985 Austrian Grand Prix. Ford Cosworth continued supplying engines well into the turbo era and beyond with new naturally aspirated V8s.
Ford’s 1.5-litre Cosworth GBA V6 turbo engine enjoyed little success. However, the return to naturally aspirated engines in 1989 brought the 3.5-litre Ford Cosworth DFZ V8 for Tyrrell, Benetton and others. Alessandro Nannini won a controversial Japanese Grand Prix, followed by two victories for Nelson Piquet in 1990 and another in 1991.
Michael Schumacher claimed his first Formula 1 victory with Benetton Ford at the 1992 Belgian Grand Prix. Despite strong V10 and V12 opposition, Ayrton Senna’s McLaren and Schumacher’s Benetton won six races in 1993. Senna finished second in the championship, Schumacher third, with their teams also second and third.
Schumacher went on to win eight races on his way to the World Drivers’ Championship in 1994. Lean seasons followed, including campaigns with Jos Verstappen’s Simtek Ford and the Red Bull sponsored Sauber Ford in 1995, then Sauber, Minardi and Forti in 1996.
Ford’s journey from Cosworth to Red Bull
In 1997, Ford ran Jackie Stewart’s Stewart Grand Prix as a works team, while also supplying Tyrrell and Minardi. Ford acquired full control of Cosworth’s racing engine division in 1998. Johnny Herbert delivered Stewart’s only victory at the 1999 European Grand Prix.
Stewart was rebranded as Jaguar, a project that failed to win. However, Ford engines powered Giancarlo Fisichella’s Jordan to Ford’s most recent Grand Prix victory at the 2003 Brazilian Grand Prix. After another difficult season in 2004, Ford sold Jaguar to Red Bull and exited Formula 1.
Ford has been absent from Formula 1 for 21 years. That is about to change. In February 2023, Ford announced a partnership with Red Bull Powertrains as power unit partner from the 2026 season. The move coincides with new regulations focused on sustainable fuels and increased electrification, with the new cars already on track.
Led by four-time world champion Max Verstappen and Isack Hadjar, with Racing Bulls fielding Liam Lawson and Arvid Lindblad, Ford will return to Formula 1 in 2026. The question is whether the Red Bull Ford DM01 will prove as effective in Verstappen’s hands as the Ford Cosworth DFV was in Jim Clark’s, and so many others after him.
Time will tell. Ford is once again lighting up Formula 1, beginning with pre-season testing and continuing around the world, starting at the Australian Grand Prix in Melbourne on Sunday, 8 March.