After Breaking Ground in F1 With Red Bull, Ford Eyes American Favorites NASCAR, Le Mans and More

Red Bull launched their new livery for the 2023 season yesterday. While the livery followed a similar design trend, it was the important announcements that made more headlines. One of the major ones included the Milton-Keynes-based team’s partnership with Ford. The American automaker will collaborate with the Austrian F1 team to build powertrain starting in 2026. However, they have no intention of stopping just there. Ford CEO revealed the company’s motor sporting ambitions to venture into the likes of NASCAR and Le Mans.

The livery revealed on Friday left fans underwhelmed, to say the least. However, as it turned out, the livery reveal wasn’t the main headliner of the entire show. Formula 1 will go through a major change in terms of power units in 2026. Working towards the commitment to sustainability and environmental consciousness, the teams will switch to powertrain that will use more sustainable fuel and extract more power electrically. Red Bull will do that in partnership with Ford until at least the 2030 season.

Revealing the automaker’s extensive ambitions, Ford’s Jim Farley revealed as per Ford Newsletter, “We will be competing to win in F1, the pinnacle for motorsport, with Red Bull Racing. You will see the world’s most popular sports coupe, the Mustang, race from the grassroots to Australian Supercars to NASCAR to Le Mans.

“And we will build our off-road leadership in the World Rally Championship, King of Hammers and to the Baha 1000, and more. All the while, we’ll continue to excite the world with cool demonstrators like SuperVan 4 and Mustang Mach-E 1400.”

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The F1 collaboration will also help Ford innovate more powerful engines for their cars that are going increasingly electric.

How the Red Bull partnership will help Ford’s electric vision

Climate change is a reality that more and more corporates have realized over time. As fossil fuels are depleting by the day, auto manufacturers are becoming more conscious about their products. The need and supply for electric vehicles have grown in the last few years, as a result. Ford carries that vision as well and aims to expand it even further.

Speaking further during the livery launch, Farley told, “Ford’s return to Formula 1 with Red Bull Racing is all about where we are going as a company–increasingly electric, software-defined, modern vehicles and experiences.”

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Whether Ford will be able to match the performance Honda engines have shown with Red Bull in the last couple of years is a question that will only be answered in 2026. Until then, fans can only hope the partnership will flourish between the two.