{"id":413548,"date":"2026-01-16T17:14:14","date_gmt":"2026-01-16T17:14:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/413548\/"},"modified":"2026-01-16T17:14:14","modified_gmt":"2026-01-16T17:14:14","slug":"ford-ceo-jim-farley-hits-back-at-cadillac-f1-ceos-criticism-its-laughable","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/413548\/","title":{"rendered":"Ford CEO Jim Farley Hits Back at Cadillac F1 CEO’s Criticism: \u2018It\u2019s Laughable\u2019"},"content":{"rendered":"

The biggest car news and reviews, no BS<\/p>\n

Our free daily newsletter sends the stories that really matter directly to you, every weekday.<\/p>\n

Red Bull pulled the wraps off its 2026 Formula One<\/a> World Championship livery last night in Ford<\/a>\u2018s hometown of Detroit. The entire Blue Oval family was present at the renovated Michigan Central Station to witness the dawn of its newest adventure, which will see the company compete in the world\u2019s most complex and competitive form of motorsport. But amid all the fanfare, a story published by The Athletic<\/a> earlier in the day brought a little rain on Ford\u2019s parade.<\/p>\n

Dan Towriss, the CEO of the Cadillac F1 Team, was quoted as saying that Ford\u2019s partnership with Red Bull F1 was \u201ca marketing deal with very minimal impact, while GM is an equity owner [in its F1 team].\u201d He added that the \u201ctwo deals [Cadillac and Ford\u2019s] couldn\u2019t be more different.\u201d <\/p>\n

During an interview with Ford CEO Jim Farley, Red Bull team principal Laurent Mekies, and Ford Racing global director Mark Rushbrook, I asked Farley how he felt about Towriss\u2019 comments. The displeasure was visible, and the room went quiet.<\/p>\n

\"\"Jerry Perez, Ford <\/p>\n

\u201cAll I will say is, it\u2019s laughable. It\u2019s not even worth discussing. It doesn\u2019t merit a comment,\u201d Farley told The Drive.<\/p>\n

Mekies eventually grabbed the baton and elaborated on the extent of the partnership between the two racing powerhouses: \u201cWe partnered with someone who has amazing manufacturing capabilities to produce key parts and deliver the quality that Red Bull would not be able to reach. It\u2019s all about how fast you are able to bring something to the track, and with Ford, we can develop things much faster. This is only the beginning. We truly feel that this is a people business, and we want to partner with the best people. You gotta look for the best talent, the best engineers, and now we are attached to a company that has 200,000 of the best people available.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe want the best people in the world in each field, because that\u2019s what we need if we even want to have any chance to win,\u201d added the Red Bull boss.<\/p>\n

Prior to my interaction with Farley and Mekies, I had spent the day with Ford Racing\u2019s leadership to find out just how in-depth the partnership really is. Was it just stickers on a car, or was it a real technical collaboration in which knowledge, hardware, and personnel are shared between Detroit and Milton Keynes? You can read all about it here<\/a>, including the interviews with Red Bull and Ford Racing\u2019s powertrain bosses. Surprise, it ain\u2019t just stickers on a car.<\/p>\n

\"3DRed Bull <\/p>\n

It\u2019s also worth noting that Towriss\u2019s point that GM is an equity owner in the team, and that GM\u2019s and Ford\u2019s F1 deals are completely different, is accurate. While Cadillac will race in 2026, 2027, and 2028 with a Ferrari engine, GM\u2019s powertrain is expected to be ready by 2029, at which point it will become a full works team just like Ferrari and Mercedes. The bit that can now be debunked is that it\u2019s merely a \u201cmarketing deal with minimal impact.\u201d<\/p>\n

After addressing other questions from the media, Farley circled back to my original question. In fact, he circled back multiple times over roughly 15 minutes, each time highlighting that Ford\u2019s commitment to F1 goes beyond marketing. <\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019ve committed to a four-year partnership,\u201d added Farley. \u201cThis is not our first rodeo in Formula 1. There is a lot of institutional memory at Ford Motor Company, in the pores of the concrete, in the walls. We made our decision with Red Bull, and they made their decision on who to partner with. This is the team we want to be with, this is exactly where we want to be. There is no other dream for us, other than to support Laurent [Mekies] and watch Mr. Ford be at the top step of the podium someday. We equally share the humility of being at the beginning of this journey to [design] a PU for a top F1 team.<\/p>\n

\"DETROIT,<\/p>\n

\"3D
\nRed Bull<\/p>\n

\u201cEvery time I thought about the problems Ford had to solve to lead the market in aerodynamics, drivetrains, and more, the answer kept coming back: Formula 1, Formula 1, Formula 1. It became obvious that the best people were in Formula 1. And we\u2019ve discovered this together over the last four years\u2014emphasis on four years. This is where we need to be.\u201d<\/p>\n

As our meeting ended and I thanked the trio for their time, Farley looked at me and said, \u201cWords are cheap.\u201d<\/p>\n

Email the author at jerry@thedrive.com<\/p>\n

As deputy editor, Jerry draws on a decade of industry experience and a lifelong passion for motorsports to guide The Drive\u2019s short- and long-term coverage.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The biggest car news and reviews, no BS Our free daily newsletter sends the stories that really matter…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":413549,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[441],"tags":[49,48,578,10221,576,577,82],"class_list":{"0":"post-413548","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-formula-1","8":"tag-ca","9":"tag-canada","10":"tag-f1","11":"tag-ford","12":"tag-formula-1","13":"tag-formula1","14":"tag-sports"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/413548","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=413548"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/413548\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/413549"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=413548"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=413548"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=413548"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}