Ford returns to F1 with a plan to win - and improve the Transit

Ford Motor Company exists because of motorsport. In 1901, Henry Ford took part in his only race, a 10-mile contest against Alexander Winton in Grosse Pointe, Michigan, in a self-built 26hp car called Sweepstakes. He won and the reputation earned from that helped to secure backing to launch his eponymous company a few years later. One hundred and twenty five years on, Ford is still hugely committed to motorsport. In 2026, it will support machines racing in 34 different categories around the globe, ranging from rally raids to stock cars, GT racers to Baja buggies. And, most notably, it will return to Formula 1 this weekend. Amazingly, despite being absent from the grid for 22 years, Ford is still the third-most-successful engine manufacturer in the history of the sport, its 176 race wins ranking behind only Ferrari and Mercedes. All those Ford victories were achieved with engines built by Cosworth, including the legendary DFV. But the Blue Oval's 2026 return is very different, coming in a new partnership with Red Bull; the 1.6-litre V6 hybrid powertrain in the RB22 that Max Verstappen and Isack Hadjar will drive this year will be built by the new Red Bull Ford Powertrains outfit in Milton Keynes. How much of that powertrain is Ford responsible for? We'll get to that, but let's start with the reasons for Ford's return to the grand prix grid. Why Ford is back in F1 As far as chairman Bill Ford - Henry's great-grandson - is concerned, the reason behind Ford's F1 return is the same as for all its motorsport efforts. "To win is the short answer," he says. "We have a long history in F1 that we're proud of, and although we've raced all over the world in different series, the one area we weren't in was F1. We've remedied that." But while the Ford family are clearly passionate racers, there's a business aspect to this too. Yet in an age when Ford's global model range is disparate and in many aspects not especially sporty, you have to ask: will being in F1 really help it sell cars, especially given that its UK line-up largely consists of SUVs? "We don't really think of Formula 1 as a sales and marketing thing, like it used to be with the DFV," Ford CEO Jim Farley tells Autocar. "Totally separate company. Ford had nothing to do with the engineering, but our name was on the valve cover. We won all those GPs, but we weren't there. This is a different era: this is our power unit. So I'm thinking in terms of technology transfer. But instead of four valves per cylinder or overhead cams, it's predictive component failure software, high-discharge batteries, aerodynamics. "It's learning additive manufacturing or quick cycle times on new components - things we didn't even know we could do better than F1, which it turns out we can. "It's about two-way tech transfer. When I became CEO, I listed all of the technical challenges we were going to have in transitioning to software-defined vehicles and partial full electric. And I realised the best people in most of those territories were F1 people." Were you expecting Farley to say Ford's F1 return was about software? Me neither. So, follow-up question: can F1 really make the public care about software-defined vehicles? "Oh my God, are you kidding me?" says Farley. "If you're a Transit customer and a plumber or electrician, you're going to lose a lot of money if you're off the road. F1 has the best predictive failure component software in the world. "Do you know how valuable it would be for a Transit operator to know a tyre or battery or powertrain component is going to fail before it does? It's invaluable and that tech transfer from F1 is a completely different model from the 1970s, '80s and '90s." Obviously, the marketing potential of F1 doesn't hurt and it's no coincidence Ford's return comes at a time when F1 is surging in popularity in the US - helped massively by Netflix's Drive to Survive series. Ford has been leaning into its US heritage lately and has been pushing itself as 'America's F1 team' - sparking an amusing spat with GM's Cadillac, another F1 newcomer. "The Netflix series really changed the viewership of F1 in America," says Bill Ford. "A lot of younger women watch F1 now and it's really important for us to stay relevant with a younger cohort than we would have traditionally reached through racing." How the Red Bull-Ford partnership will work In 2021, Red Bull found itself potentially facing a lack of powertrain for its main squad and junior team (then Alpha Tauri, now Racing Bulls) when supplier Honda announced it was quitting the sport. The solution was bold: to use some of its vast fizzy drink-fuelled wealth to set up its own engine division, Red Bull Powertrains, complete with a sprawling new factory in Milton Keynes. The move had short-term benefits but a long-term view: it was always focused on 2026, when new F1 engine regulations would come into force. Although power would continue to be supplied by 1.6-litre V6 combustion engines, the hybrid element would be revamped, the two small systems on the old unit replaced by a large 469bhp e-motor powered purely by kinetic energy. Electric energy would provide half the power unit's total energy output. A bold plan? Try audacious. But then Red Bull's success in F1 - 130 race wins and seven drivers' titles in 21 seasons - has instilled what Phil Prew, the powertrain firm's technical operations chief, calls a "winning mindset that set the scene to take on the ultimate challenge". If Prew's name sounds familiar, he was Lewis Hamilton's race engineer at McLaren for the Briton's maiden F1 drivers' title in 2008 and more recently spent 10 years working at Mercedes-AMG's powertrain division in Brixworth. He will find plenty of his former colleagues among Red Bull's 700 engine staff, including technical director Ben Hodgkinson. Ford joined the project in 2023, so you might think the firm's involvement is a branding exercise. But Christian Hertrich, Ford Racing's powertrain chief engineer, insists this is "not a sticker exercise for us". That said, it's all relative. Hertrich acknowledges that Ford is producing only "a percentage" of the power unit, citing 12 key components spread across various elements. While Ford staff are rotated to Milton Keynes to work at Red Bull Ford Powertrains, they number in single digits at any time - a tiny fraction of the overall workforce. But the strength of the partnership, says Hertrich, lies in the different philosophies of the two firms: "They bring an opposite mindset to us. We're a big behemoth that is maybe slow in some aspects, with lots of process and procedure. They bring creativity, innovation and speed. "We're bringing different ideas together, so we can get to the end goal by different approaches. They're bringing a single-minded culture of winning. We have vast expertise in manufacturing, and deep resources across the globe, while they're starting from nothing." That scale and resource are clearly valuable. Hertrich gives one example of when Red Bull asked for help with a component vibration: "We have passenger cars where NVH [noise, vibration and harshness] is critical, and within an hour of bringing in one of our NVH guys, we've fixed the issue. It's that sort of fluid, constant communication." This year's F1 regulations mark "a massive, massive change", according to Prew. There's a total overhaul of not just the powertrain but also the chassis, with a whole new aerodynamic concept. That perhaps makes it an ideal time for a newcomer to enter (it's no coincidence Audi's works team also arrives this year), so Ford's help has been a boon. "It's a natural collaboration," says Prew. "We quickly found where the synergies were and it's grown. In terms of manufacturing and having Ford engineers work alongside us, I don't think how much we could work together was understood at the beginning." The Porsche of off-road Ford's motorsport history is almost unrivalled, but there is one marquee event that eludes it: the Dakar Rally. That will remain the case until at least 2027: in this year's event, the works Ford Raptor T1+ entries claimed six stage wins and second and third overall - but it was Dacia driver Nasser Al-Attiyah who clinched victory. But Dakar isn't Ford's only off-road motorsport commitment. The company also supports private entries, with Broncos in the likes of the Baja 1000, and other events such as the King of the Hammers. It's part of a broader ambition at Ford to take a lead in the crucial market for US off-roaders, with the likes of Raptor versions of its big-selling pick-ups and the ultra-successful Jeep Wrangler-rivalling Bronco. The goal: Ford wants to become the leading off-road brand - it wants to be the Porsche of off-road. "We like authentic motorsports," says Farley. "We do not like synthetic experiences. We like dirt racing. We like Dakar. We like Baja." And it's part of a wider push: "We love organic series, the ones that come up from the bottom. People love this sport because it's honest and sometimes even illogical." Ford's endurance training As well as entering F1, Ford is working on a new hypercar to tackle the World Endurance Championship from 2027 onwards. The goal this time is for Ford to take its first overall Le Mans 24 Hours victory since the GT40's four in a row between 1966 and 1969. The project is being run in-house and will fit into the cost-controlled LMDh rules, which means the use of a spec chassis and hybrid system, with Ford allowed to provide its own engine. In this case, it will use a 5.4-litre V8 shared with the Mustang GT3. Dan Sayers, Ford Racing's hypercar boss, admits "the choice of a V8 is probably no surprise" given Ford's history - the GT40 featured one, for example - but says "when you have an engine this iconic in your arsenal, you don't look for alternatives". Still, he insists it was the right choice, and not just for its road car relevance: "If you can reach the minimum mass and power level, which wasn't a stretch, it's all about torque control, and the simplicity of a naturally aspirated V8 lends itself to endurance racing. You don't need extra cooling, and simple is good in endurance racing." The hypercar project is a notable change from Ford's current endurance programme, which centres on customer racing, including with the Mustang GT3. Farley, an enthusiastic racer himself, says customer racing is "the business model", and adds: "When I go to sports car races, I'm not there to congratulate the factory team. I'm there to say thanks to our customers." The hypercar, though - as with the firm's other key projects - is about something different. Farley is unequivocal: "When it comes to F1, Dakar or Le Mans, we want the logo. We want Ford to win. I want Bill Ford on the podium."

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Ford returns to F1 with a plan to win - and improve the Transit

Ford has returned to the Formula 1 grid after a 22-year absence, but it's not all about on-track success

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Ford returns to F1 with a plan to win - and improve the Transit

Ford has returned to the Formula 1 grid after a 22-year absence, but it's not all about on-track success

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About Autocar