How an out-of-the-blue email to Horner sparked Ford’s F1 comeback

Ford has revealed that the trigger for its return to Formula 1 with Red Bull was an out-of-the-blue email sent to the Austrian-British team’s team principal, Christian Horner.

The collapse of Red Bull’s negotiations with Porsche in the summer of 2022 came just as Ford was considering a return to F1, drawn by the growing popularity of Grand Prix racing and the allure of the 2026 technical regulations.

But amid questions about the investment needed to create its own power unit or even buy a team, Mark Rushbrook, Ford’s global motorsport director, thought there was no harm in writing to Red Bull to see if a deal was possible after Porsche. And, after tracking down Horner’s email address, it was a message from him that set the events in motion that led to the current partnership.

Speaking this week at Red Bull’s Milton Keynes factory to discuss the progress made on the project, Rushbrook revealed the strange circumstances in which initial talks took place.

“For us, we were definitely on the right track: Formula 1 is the right place to be, but how were we going to get in?” Rushbrook said. “We were talking to a number of teams. We were thinking about doing our own power unit program, independently.”

“When it became very clear, at least from what we saw from the outside, that it wasn’t going to work with Porsche for Red Bull, I literally took Christian’s email address, sent him an email and said, ‘Hey, do we want to talk?’

“I got on a plane to come here and after about 20 minutes of discussion I felt that there was the basis for a partnership that would work. I left the meeting and called Jim Farley. [amministratore delegato di Ford] and from there it just accelerated rapidly.”

Horner said Rushbrook’s email was particularly timely because, while he believed Red Bull needed a manufacturer’s involvement in its engine project, it had to be under the right conditions.

“We assessed that it would be much better for us to collaborate with an OEM manufacturer, because as an independent manufacturer you lose the advantages that Ferrari, Mercedes or Honda, who have changed their minds, have technically,” Horner said.

“We went through a process and concluded that a change of ownership was not the right way forward for the company, and then I sat down with Mark and he told me that Ford was looking at a return to F1. We thought, ‘Hey, we’re thinking about doing this. This is our plan.’ So it happened very, very quickly.”

Horner also referred to a moment during a meeting in late 2022 when he was given a clear visual signal of how ready Ford was to participate in F1.

“We went to a meeting in Dearborn on the way to Brazil and met Mark, Bill Ford and Jim,” Horner said. “I thought we were in a good place when Jim came into the meeting wearing a Sergio Perez hat!”

“You could feel that there was enthusiasm, real enthusiasm from the top of the company, from Bill Ford, who was so excited to get back into F1, and from Jim, who is a racing driver himself.”

“It was like, ‘We don’t want to tell you how to do business, but we want this to be a real partnership,’ and from that point on it was a very, very easy negotiation.”

Red Bull Ford Powertrains

Photo by: Red Bull Content Pool

It is no surprise that, from start to finish, the Red Bull Ford deal was completed in around 12 weeks, a far cry from Porsche, where negotiations collapsed after six months.

While the approach Ford is taking to its next F1 venture is a world apart from previous periods – when it ran its own engines with the famous Cosworths or its own team with Jaguar – it is an approach that Rushbrook believes is better suited to its other motorsport activities.

He added: “We thought: should we buy a team? I think we’ve shown, with what this team has become. [Red Bull] from what was Jackie Stewart and Jaguar, which is not our core competency, right?

“Yes, we are in motorsports, but we don’t own or operate a team. We have always chosen partners, whether it’s Dick Johnson Racing in Australia, Penske in NASCAR, Bob Tasca in NHRA or M-Sport in rallying.

“So the opportunity to partner with what we think is the best team in the series and integrate them in the right way is the right path for us.”

With the relationship between Red Bull and Ford now in full swing, as they look to use each other’s strengths to help drive forward the 2026 engine project, Horner even thinks the way things are shaping up could be followed by others in the future.

“I think it’s a great way for Ford to be involved without having the full responsibility of having to deliver the performance,” he said. “It’s a partnership that complements what we’re doing and I think it will set a benchmark for other manufacturers to consider similar models.”

“I think Alpine is already exploring this in the conversations they’re hosting. I think this changes the dynamic of how manufacturers can come into the sport, without taking on the entire burden of an engine structure like this, or buying a team, or investing in a team.”