A groundbreaking new partnership between Ford and Red Bull has the potential to transform Formula 1 – and the cars we drive every day.
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Ford’s Formula 1 partnership with Red Bull is about more than a fifth world championship for Max Verstappen, or an uptick in vehicle sales for the blue oval.
It’s about being able to see the future, working with the brightest minds in the automotive world, and connecting with a new generation of fans who fell in love with the sport through Drive to Survive.
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Bill Ford, executive chair of Ford and great grandson of Henry Ford, says his company is simply racing to win.
But there’s more to it when you scratch the surface of a burning ambition.
“That whole Netflix series really changed the viewership in America, not only in terms of numbers of people, but also the demographics,” Ford said.
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“I mean, now you have a lot of younger women now watching F1 that never would have watched F1 in the past. And so, I think it was really important to stay relevant with a much younger cohort and a very different cohort than we would have traditionally reached through racing.”
Ford said the drive to win in Formula 1 is “deeply personal”.
“We have a long history in F1 and it’s something we are very proud of.
“We race all over the world in so many circuits, and the one area we were not in was F1, so we’ve remedied that.
“We’ve gone in with what we think is the best partner possible, with the best driver in the world.”
That driver would be Max Verstappen, Red Bull’s four-time champion who came agonisingly close to a fifth title against the odds last year.
Verstappen says there is no clear form guide going into pre-season testing ahead of the season-opening Australian Grand Prix in March.
“The gaps will be bigger in the beginning, that’s always been the case when you have a new regulation, there will be one team or two teams that hit the ground running way better than others,” Verstappen said.
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“But I hope that then, of course over time, it might be super close. I think especially with these rules, they seem quite complicated so it’s not going to be easy for everyone to get on top of that straight away.”
Ford president and chief executive Jim Farley, a keen amateur racer, said there is much more to F1 than selling a few more Mustangs or Raptors.
“We don’t really think of Formula 1 as a sales and marketing thing as it used to be … this is a different era.
“It is the tech transfer.
“When I became the CEO I started to list all the challenges we were going to have in transitioning to a software defined car, and partial or full electric, and I kept realising that the best people in most of those territories were Formula 1 people.”
Red Bull F1 boss Laurent Mekies, who took over from Christian Horner last year, agreed that F1 isn’t about data, cash, or luck.
“We truly feel that it’s a people business,” he said.
“We feel we have put together the best group of people … You get the right, the best people, you will get at the right place. That’s how the project is set.”
Ford insiders say the company’s manufacturing might and incredible resources have brought new possibilities to Red Bull, while the F1 team is helping Detroit’s giant be more agile in an ever-shifting industry.
While we won’t see slick tyres or enormously powerful engines in tradie chariots any time soon, Farley said the ability for F1 engineers to predict the future could reap rewards for car buyers.
“F1 has the best ‘predictive failure’ component software in the world, I believe,” he said.
“They can predict most of the failures in those components before they fail.
“Do you know how valuable it would be for a (Ford) Transit operator to know that a tyre, or a battery, or a powertrain component is going to fail before it does, so they can go fix it and not be off the road?”
The blue oval does not expect F1 to be easy. Far from it.
“We wanted to pick one of the hardest problems,” Farley said.
“Ford is a great company when we have hard problems. We don’t want to use someone else’s engine.
We want to go into this and solve one of the biggest problems in modern transport, which is a modern F1 PU (powertrain unit)”.
Bill Ford said the company will keep expectations in check.
“It’s always a challenge when you’ve been gone for a while, and it’s a new engine,” he said.
“But on the other hand, all the teams will have new powertrains this year.
“It’s going to be really interesting early in the season to see exactly where we are as a team.
“We’ll find out in Melbourne.”
Originally published as Red Bull and Ford unveil stunning new F1 car
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