How an out-of-the-blue email to Horner started Ford’s F1 return

Ford has revealed how the trigger for its return to Formula 1 with Red Bull was an out-of-the-blue email that it sent to team boss Christian Horner.

The collapse of talks that Red Bull was having with Porsche in the summer of 2022 came at the exact time that Ford was considering the possibility of a return to F1 – attracted by grand prix racing’s booming popularity and the attraction of the 2026 technical regulations.

But, amid questions over the investment needed to create its own power unit, or even buy a team, Ford’s global motorsports director Mark Rushbrook thought there would be no harm in writing to Red Bull to see if post-Porsche there was any scope for its own deal. And, after digging out Horner’s email address, it was a message he sent that set in motion the events that ended up in their current partnership.

Speaking at Red Bull’s Milton Keynes factory this week to discuss how far the project has come, Rushbrook revealed the strange circumstances of how the talks initially got going.

“For us, we were definitely on that journey of: Formula 1 is the right place to be, but it was how were we going to enter?” Rushbrook said. “We were talking to different teams. We were thinking about doing our own power unit programme, independently.

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

“I got on a plane to come here, and I felt maybe 20 minutes into that discussion – okay, there’s the foundation for a partnership here that’s going to work. And I left that meeting and called Jim Farley [Ford CEO] and then it accelerated quickly from there.”

Horner said that the email from Rushbrook was especially timely because, while Red Bull felt it had needed a manufacturer involvement for its engine project, it had to be on the right terms.

“We went through a process of it would be far better strategically for us to partner with an OEM, because as an independent manufacturer, you miss out on the advantages that Ferrari or Mercedes or Honda, who changed their mind, technically have,” said Horner.

“We went through a process and we concluded that a change in ownership wasn’t the right route for the…