Max Verstappen keeps his powder dry on Red Bull–Ford power as 2026 era nears
Red Bull turned the spotlight on 2026 in Ford’s backyard, rolling out a glossy blue RB22 livery in Detroit and a reminder that the next era will be built in-house. The story, of course, is the engine — Red Bull Powertrains’ first clean-sheet power unit, developed with Ford. And Max Verstappen, who knows a thing or two about judging a project’s true pace, wasn’t in the mood to declare a knockout blow before the first bell.
“Time will tell,” he said when pressed on how Red Bull–Ford stacks up under the sweeping 2026 rules reset. “We don’t know. The only thing I do know is that everyone is giving it everything they have. We’re trying to push ahead and maximise everything, but it’s not going to be easy. We know that.”
You don’t often hear soft-pedalling from a three-time world champion. But this is a rare frontier for Red Bull: the team that’s spent much of recent history running at arm’s length from its engine supplier is now a full factory operation. From 2026, the car and the power unit are Red Bull’s — with Ford badges and backing — and no one inside Milton Keynes is pretending that flipping that switch comes without risk.
They won’t be alone in the unknown. Audi steps in as a manufacturer next season with its newly minted works team after taking over Sauber, while Honda moves from powering Red Bull to partnering Aston Martin. The field resets, the pecking order gets thrown in the air, and the stopwatch becomes the only truth that matters.
The Detroit showcase offered a dash of nostalgia — that deep blue paint recalling Red Bull’s early days — but the tone around the power unit was deliberately sober. Bench figures are one thing. Correlation, deployment, cooling, integration… that’s where titles are won.
Laurent Mekies, who heads Red Bull’s Faenza-based sister squad, didn’t sugarcoat the scale of the job. “We’re not naive,” he said, reflecting the group mood as Red Bull and Ford jump into the deep end together. He spoke of the inevitable early “headaches” and “sleepless nights,” but also of why the gamble is worth it: the endgame is to win with an all-Red Bull package, and that ambition doesn’t come with a safety net.
It’s a “crazy challenge,” as he put it — the kind that only a company with Red Bull’s appetite (and Ford’s muscle) tends to embrace. The subtext: don’t expect instant perfection. Expect a fight.
The wider paddock will treat that caution with the respect it deserves, and still wonder if it’s sandbagging. Red Bull’s chassis group remains a benchmark, and Verstappen is Verstappen — relentless, clinical, unflappable when the walls close in. Even if the first laps of 2026 are scrappy, this is not an operation that will accept living in the midfield for long.
The key unknowns? How quickly Red Bull Powertrains can iron out those first-iteration gremlins; how effectively the RB22 architecture wraps around the new unit; and how smoothly the marriage between factory and partner is managed when it moves from launch stages to hot-weekend crisis mode. As ever, the stopwatch will be merciless.
For all the fanfare, Verstappen’s read felt like the honest one. The walls of Red Bull’s campus are covered in titles built on ruthless speed and calm execution. Now comes the part where they have to add something new to that wall — and build it themselves.
Until the lights go out in 2026, the only certainty is that Red Bull has placed its biggest bet yet. And its best card, as usual, is the driver who doesn’t do hype. Time will tell.
