Red Bull launches Ford Formula 1 engine partnership in Detroit

Starting from scratch comes with pros and cons, said Red Bull Powertrains (RBPT) technical director Ben Hodgkinson, who worked for Formula 1 engine company Mercedes for 20 years before the switch.

“I am confident that the team you have built is incredible,” he said. “I am confident that the facilities we have put together will be a benchmark. But we are a newcomer.

“We had to build factories while people started developing engines. So I think we started late. But I think the people and facilities we have are better than anyone else. Would I have passed them in the first race? I don’t know.”

Ford joined as a partner a year or so after RBPT was set up but Hodgkinson said the relationship was “very much a partnership”.

He said Ford has been able to “correct some of the gaps” that Red Bull couldn’t fill in terms of hiring, and that their “advanced manufacturing capability” has allowed Red Bull “to make very complex 3D parts, but parts that are so complex that you can’t make them because of their geometry, and we’re able to do that very quickly because Ford’s expertise in this area is truly world-class.”

He said Ford’s purchasing power for supplies of the electric part of the engine was “really very helpful.”

He added: “As a Formula 1 engine manufacturer, although this is a really big business, it’s very small compared to some of the big OEMs (car manufacturers), and if you’re trying to get an EV component supplier to be interested in supplying your 50-bit, they’re not interested, and there’s not enough margin for them. But then, if Ford knocks on the door, people will answer.”