Liberty Media has achieved what it was looking for when, five years ago, it formalized the purchase process of the exploitation rights of the Formula 1 World Championship from the venture capital fund CVC. Thanks to a super-aggressive strategy, the company has managed to conquer the North American market, a group that had always been skeptical of the complexity of the championship, and its European roots, and which is now absolutely dedicated to the cause. The next season, the one that starts in Bahrain on March 5, will be the longest in history, with a total of 23 appointments on the calendar, three of them on American soil (Austin, Miami and Las Vegas). As if that were not a sufficiently illustrative element of the roots that F1 has achieved there, this Friday at noon the return of Ford was confirmed, with a view to 2026.
The Michigan giant, the third most successful motorcyclist of the ‘great circus’, with ten constructor titles and 13 pilots, will return to the contest more than two decades after having parted ways with it, after closing the project that he had half with Jaguar (2004) and begin to focus their forces on the World Rally Championship (WRC) and on touring cars. The cat’s company then sold the entire racket to Red Bull, which, based on investing industrial amounts of money, managed to climb to the top. It so happens that Ford and the energetic troop will join again in three years, waiting for the red buffalo team to confirm the agreement. The fact that the presentation of the new car of the world champion structure will take place this Friday, in New York, led to the appearance of information that pointed to a possible re-entry of Ford in F1, at the hands of Red Bull. The event will be attended by Max Verstappen, who has been crowned world champion consecutively for the last two years, as well as Checo Pérez, his workshop neighbor, and Christian Horner, the team manager. It is understood that, through this agreement, Ford will join forces with Red Bull Powertrains, the division of the formation of Miltone Keynes (Great Britain) that develops the engines of the cars, and that at the moment receives the support of Honda. This new chapter definitively shelves the talks with Porsche, initially interested in buying 50% of Red Bull, in an attempt that went into a dead end after the summer.
Last week, Ford’s head of competition openly raised the possibility of returning to the World Cup. “Formula 1 has been strengthened and is growing, both in the United States and globally,” said Mark Rushbrook, head of the Dearborn brand, in an interview with Autosport. “What Liberty has done well is generate compelling races. Also, with Drive to Survive –the Netflix documentary series– have reached new audiences. As a company, we compete to innovate, to transfer technology [a los coches de calle], but also for marketing reasons. All this deserves consideration”, added the executive, anticipating, in a half-veiled way, the announcement of this Friday.
“This is the start of a new chapter in racing history for Ford, which began when my great-grandfather [Henry Ford] he won a race—in 1901, at a Detroit racetrack—that helped found our company. Ford returns to the pinnacle of motorsports, bringing our great tradition of innovation, sustainability and electrification to one of the most visible showcases around,” says Ford CEO Bill Ford in the official statement. “Ford is a global label with an incredible tradition in racing and the automotive sector, and has seen great value in our platform,” added Stefano Domenicali, F1 CEO. The reappearance of Ford will coincide in time with the arrival on the scene of Audi, which this week completed the purchase of a shareholding package in Sauber.
The FIA opens the process to register new teams
The International Automobile Federation (FIA) published this Thursday the requirements that must be met by those candidates who intend to opt for one of the places that will be opened, for new teams, from 2025. The FIA makes it clear that the pre-selection criteria They will focus, above all, on ensuring the economic viability of the proposals. The evaluation process of the alternatives is expected to last until April 30. This movement by the body that regulates F1 comes a month after the Andretti team showed its intentions to ally with Cadillac for a hypothetical entry into the World Cup.
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