After Honda and Red Bull decided to part ways at the end of 2021, the Austrian brand decided to establish its own engine department because it thought that it would not be successful if there was a customer team.
Shortly after this decision, Porsche started negotiations with Red Bull and offered to buy about half of the Austrian team's shares and become an engine partner.
Although the parties largely agreed, Red Bull thought that a corporate structure would not bring success and therefore gave up on making an agreement.
Red Bull started negotiating with Ford shortly after that and signed with the American company. As of 2026, the American auto giant will provide a significant amount of support to Red Bull, both financially and technically. In fact, the parties have already started working on the 2026 engine in the background.
Max Verstappen has a contract with Red Bull for the first three years of use of the Ford engine, and therefore closely monitors every decision made with regard to the future.
Verstappen's manager, Raymond Vermeulen, has no doubt that Red Bull will produce a competitive power unit.
Speaking to Dutch newspaper Formule1.nl, Vermeulen said: "The main reason the deal with Porsche has not been completed is because Red Bull believes it has laid the foundations for a viable project."
“To me, saying 'no' to Porsche is a testament to the Austrian team's vision.” said.
Red Bull advisor Helmut Marko went further and said: “I don't think we're behind technically.”
“We have included various experts from Ferrari, Mercedes, Renault and Cosworth in Red Bull Powertrains.”
“We have a partner like Ford, we have highly experienced people on the internal combustion engine side. On the electrical side, we have two very bright names.”
“Although we are in August, we are running the internal combustion engine as a whole with the MGU-K and the battery. At this point, I can say that we are way ahead of Ferrari and Audi.”
“We are almost at the same point as Mercedes.”
