Why Ford are ‘climbing a mountain’ in hope of powering Max Verstappen to F1 glory after 22-year absence

The American car giant re-joins the sport this year with Red Bull but, as Kieran Jackson explains, giving Verstappen a car capable of winning the title, amid sweeping regulation changes, will be their biggest challenge yet

Max Verstappen (centre) poses next to Red Bull's 2026 F1 livery in Detroit on Thursday (Red Bull Racing)

Just 39 days since Lando Norris’s title triumph in Abu Dhabi, the Formula One wagon is slowly cranking back into gear. Yet this time, those changes of gear are clunky and unpredictable. 2026 marks a deep dive into the unknown: new regulations, new teams and, for most of the field, new dreams. Disregard the usual gossip and murmurs. The truth is that nobody really knows what to expect.

And so it was 4,000 miles from UK’s so-called “Motorsport Valley” in the Midlands and Oxfordshire, which hosts six of the now 11 teams, where the love-or-loathe F1 launch season began in piercing sub-zero conditions on Thursday night. The venue was Michigan Central Station in Detroit, with temperatures around -10C, as Red Bull took to the stage alongside one of America’s biggest car manufacturers.

Christian Horner was beaming like a Cheshire cat when Ford’s partnership with Red Bull was first announced in New York three years ago. Ford’s return to F1 after 22 years – they withdrew from the sport in 2004 when they sold Jaguar to Red Bull – is an obvious marker of the sport’s growth and popularity across the pond. Not only that but General Motors’ entrance via Cadillac – F1’s first new team since Haas in 2016 – is indicative of a new arms race in the sport. And it’s decked in American red-and-white.

Of course, Horner’s services have since been dispensed with. Laurent Mekies, team principal since July, is the beneficiary of Horner’s long-term vision and stood proudly alongside the sport’s star driver in Max Verstappen and French compatriot Isack Hadjar, Verstappen’s fourth different teammate in 15 months, as the team unveiled their dashing new colour design last night.

“I love the new livery, it looks really nice and think it is going to stand out on track this year,” Verstappen said, next to the RB22 car which was a throwback of sorts to Red Bull’s early years, with a lighter shade of blue.

“The gloss is cool, it is a more retro look, the colour is really bold and blue, I really like it. Seeing it in real life was special and I was really impressed and surprised by how much of a change it is.

“The whole look brings back a lot of great memories of back in the day when I was just starting out in F1 and everything was new. I’m excited to drive a car with a completely different look. I’m not sure the mechanics will be happy about the time it’ll take to keep this clean!

“But, it’s going to look really slick and will be nice for everyone to see out on track.”

Seven weeks out from the opening round in Australia on 8 March, the slate has been wiped clean up-and-down the grid amid the most radical regulation shake-up in the sport’s 76-year history. New engine and chassis regulations, with smaller, nimbler cars and more electrical power, will present a new challenge to the 22 drivers. DRS has also gone after 15 years, with “active aero” and “overtake mode” the fresh terminology fans will have to get used to in the early stages.

Yet for Red Bull Ford’s powertrains technical director Ben Hodgkinson, who served as one of the masterminds behind Mercedes’s excellence of the 2014 hybrid-era, it has been the project of a lifetime, with three factories built and 700 people recruited over the last three years. Unquestionably, with Red Bull also starting their first season without Horner at the helm, it is the team’s biggest challenge in F1 to date, with the first results of their work set to come at the private pre-season test in Barcelona, starting on 26 January.

Red Bull launched their 2026 car at Michigan Central Station on Thursday (Getty Images)

The new livery is a throwback to Red Bull’s early years in the sport (Getty Images)

But the towering question remains: can a team producing their own engine for the first time really power a driver to the world championship?

“I don’t think you belong in this industry if you don’t believe you can do it,” Hodgkinson told The Independent on Thursday. “That is clearly the target. But if you show me a confident engineer, I’ll show you one that’s about to lose.”

Red Bull’s engine manufacturer partners

• Cosworth (2005)
• Ferrari (2006)
• Renault (2007-2018)
• Honda (2019-2025)
• Ford (2026 onwards)

His former employers Mercedes – who will supply four teams in their own team, McLaren, Williams and Alpine – are rumoured to be the frontrunners in engine development. Some of that gossip stems from their perfection of the hybrid-era change in 2014. But most of it is typical paddock tittle-tattle.

“A lot of that talk originated from Mercedes themselves,” Hodgkinson was keen to point out. “My gran used to say an empty can rattles the loudest. I just want to get my head down and get on with it.

“You have to assume you’re behind so that you always push to the absolute maximum. I’m confident that the team I’ve built is incredible. The people and the facilities we’ve got are better than everybody else. Watch this space… it’s going to be an interesting season.”

Plenty rests on the early rounds, though. Verstappen has a contract until the end of 2028 but it is common knowledge that the Dutchman will seek a move elsewhere if he is not able to compete for victories at Red Bull. That being said, as he enters his 11th consecutive season with the top team, his passion for the Milton Keynes outfit is obvious. He desperately wants them to succeed.

Ford CEO Jim Farley at Thursday's launch event (Getty Images)

Ford CEO Jim Farley, a genuinely passionate motorsport man, was also on-site on Thursday night but acknowledged the team do have a “mountain to climb”, despite Verstappen’s presence and the team’s strength in resources.

“Max is a special talent, not only behind the wheel but as a leader in the team,” Farley told Sky Sports. “We’re going to need that this year.

“We’ve been in F1 before... but that doesn’t help us at all in 2026. This is a monumental power unit development; we’re not like Mercedes and Ferrari, who’ve been doing this for a long time.

“It’s going to test our company like almost no other project in our company. We are incredibly humbled and excited and that’s why we took it on – because it’s so hard.”