Red Bull Racing will facilitate a return to Formula One of one of the sport’s most successful engine manufacturers in Ford next season. Despite not competing seriously in F1 more more than a quarter of a century, Ford remain third in the list of Gand Prix wins for an engine manufacturer.
Ferrari, the only team to have competed in F1 from the inaugural 1950 season have 249 wins on Sunday and Mercedes who have mostly been en engine supplier over the years are second with 236 victories.
Ford with their 176 Grand Prix wins have a formidable history in F1, their DFV engine developed for Colin Chapman and Lotus was in fact produced by British firm Cosworth Ford sponsored and paid for the DFV and for many years it was the dominant engine in Formula One.
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In 2026 Ford themselves will return to the sport as a significant technical partner as Red Bull Racing seek to build their first ever power unit. Itv was expected that the American car giant’s expertise would be limited to the electrical side of the new hybrid powertrain. Yet recently Mark Rusbrook, director of Ford motorsport admitted to AMuS: “Initially, we didn’t really want to work on the combustion engine.”
“We’re doing it now because we [and Red Bull] still have a lot to learn in this area. We were initially helping with parts production, but now we’re working on almost the entire car and the operational side of things.” Ford have invested heavily in automated production operations, something which Red Bull have discovered to be beyond their current knowledge base.
Yet the automaker’s CEO Jim Farley has admitted this week, he is “humbled” after a recent trip to China. Ford are the fifth largest maker of road cars in the world producing an astonishing 4,988,031 units in 2024.
“It’s the most humbling thing I’ve ever seen,” said Ford’s chief executive about his recent trip to China. During his time in the People’s Republic he visited a strong of Chinese production facilities and saw cutting edge innovation being packed into the Chinese cars including self driving software and facial recognition.
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“Their cost and the quality of their vehicles is far superior to what I see in the West,” Farley warned. “We are in a global competition with China, and its not just EV’s. And if we lose this, we do not have a future at Ford.”
And Farley is not the only senior global executive who reports the Chinese are streets ahead of the west. His mining giant Fortescue has been investing huge sums in green energy. He claims he has now abandoned any hope of competing with the Chinese to develop electric vehicle powertrains in house.
“I can take you to factories [in China] now, where you’ll basically be alongside a big conveyor and the machines come out of the floor and begin to assemble parts,” he says. “And you’re walking alongside this conveyor, and after about 800, 900 metres, a truck drives out. There are no people – everything is robotic.”
The boss of British energy supplier Octopus made a recent visit to China and was stunned by what he saw with a factory full of robots working without light – as they don’t need to see. “We visited a dark factory producing some astronomical number of mobile phones,” said Greg Jackson. “The process was so heavily automated that there were no workers on the manufacturing side, just a small number who were there to ensure the plant was working.
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China’s army of highly skilled engineers
“You get this sense of a change, where China’s competitiveness has gone from being about government subsidies and low wages to a tremendous number of highly skilled, educated engineers who are innovating like mad.”
The Telegraph reports the site of China’s advantage over the west as”last year [the number added] was 295,000, compared to 27,000 in Germany, 34,000 in the US and just 2,500 in the UK.” And China is coming for Formula One, if the current FIA presidential incumbent has anything to do with it.
As the debate over F1 increasing the number of Sprint events continued earlier this year, Mohammed Ben Salaam countered its more dreams F1 needs not more on track sessions.”I still feel we need more teams than races,” said Ben Sulayem, “The drivers are coming to me and saying, ‘Please, no more races’.”
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FIA wants Chinese F1 team
The president reflected on how he had delivered the 11th Fomrula One team Cadillac to the sport despite significant opposition from number of quarters. “When we opened the Expression of Interest [in 2023], what was the outcome based on? Due process, competency framework, and without looking at which company it was, as long as it fulfilled the requirements of the FIA.
“We have an 11th team. I believe we should look into the performance of the 11th team, and then, if there is a Chinese [bid], and I will speak on behalf of FOM now in front of you, they will agree to that, because it is about sustaining the business.” A bold claim indeed given FOM rejected the Cadillac application telling them to return in 2028 when they’d developed their own power unit.
For FOM to be on board for a 12th team and it be Chinese, there are wheels in motion behind the scenes that F1 supremo Stefano Domenicali is not yet revealing. “If there is a team from China, let’s say, and FOM approved it, and I am 100 per cent they will approve it, wouldn’t it make more money with China coming in? I believe, yes,” the Emerati concluded.
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Yet its not just more money that is behind the push for China’s involvement in F1, The “highly skilled, educated engineers who are innovating like mad,” are part of the picture as the fear of another downturn in the sport is pressing Domenicali to push hard for cost cutting measures.
He has even suggested the new eye wateringly expensive Hybrid power units coming on stream in 2026, could have a lifespan of just three years. Further the lubricant partners of the F1 teams are struggling to deliver the new bio fuel at an affordable cost. Current fuel is around $25-30 a litre, but the new bio fuels are reported to cost as much as $300 a litre. Customer teams could soon be spending a quarter of their cost cap budget on power units and bio fuel, but talented Chinese innovation could change all that.
The team’s could find their manufacturing processes revolutionised by automation and robotics, with three D printing already being used by one team to manufacture part of their gears boss. A Chinese F1 team and power unit manufacturer could revolutionise the sport of F1, but it may be firstly their own team which benefits and their countries global marketing recognition, which cold see them dominate within a short time of being allowed to compete in the sport. F1 provides China a world leading sporting marketing opportunity as the sport has the greatest number of viewers of any other in the world on an annual basis.
Ferrari’s struggles in 2025 have reignited the debate over John Elkann’s leadership, with a growing number of people calling for a change in leadership at Maranello. Disappointing Formula 1 results and a sharp decline in the company’s market value have fuelled criticism from investors and public figures alike.
Financial turbulence followed Capital Markets Day. Ferrari’s 2025 Capital Markets Day was intended to showcase the brand’s future ambitions, but it ended up triggering one of the most difficult moments in the company’s recent history. Investors reacted negatively when John Elkann unveiled Ferrari’s 2030 targets. The company’s stock price plummeted by around 14% in a single day, a rare and dramatic decline for such a historically stable luxury brand.
Some analysts have interpreted the decline as a sign of diminishing confidence in Elkann’s strategic direction. Although Ferrari continues to perform strongly in the luxury vehicle market, there are doubts about its ability to sustain growth while expanding into electric mobility. The announcement came amid another challenging Formula 1 season, further exacerbating the frustration of fans and shareholders….. READ MORE
A.J. Hunt is Senior Editor at TJ13 and a career journalist with experience in both print and digital sports media. Having trained in investigative journalism and contributed to several European sports outlets, Hunt brings rigour and polish to every article. His role is to sharpen analysis, check facts and ensure TJ13’s daily output meets the highest editorial standards.