Verstappen hears Red Bull–Ford fire up: “It makes a noise… a crisp one”
Max Verstappen has had his first listen to Red Bull Powertrains’ inaugural Ford-badged Formula 1 engine — and while he’s not about to pretend it’s a V10, he likes what he’s hearing.
Asked on Red Bull’s Talking Bull podcast if he’d heard the new unit, Verstappen nodded, grinned, and deadpanned: “It makes a noise!” Then came the real verdict. “It sounded good. Of course, you hear it on a dyno, but it sounded, like, crisp… I’m not sure they develop on the noise, but it made a good noise. I mean, it’s not a V10.”
The understatement fits the moment. The 2026 reset is the biggest technical swing F1’s taken in years: smaller, lighter cars with active aero at both ends and no more DRS, power units split roughly 50/50 between internal combustion and electric, fully sustainable fuel, and narrower Pirellis (25mm at the front, 30mm at the rear). It’s a rulebook designed to put energy management and deployment right at the heart of the lap time equation.
That’s precisely why engine sound is mostly theatre. Red Bull knows it. Verstappen knows it. But after building their own power unit for the first time — in partnership with Ford — a “crisp” first fire-up is a small but satisfying box ticked.
Red Bull’s pivot to becoming a full works operation was triggered when Honda’s factory commitment migrated to Aston Martin, reshuffling the grid’s power alignments for 2026. From the next rules cycle, the Red Bull–Ford unit is slated to power both Red Bull Racing and Racing Bulls.
Publicly, the soundtrack race has been led by others — both Mercedes and Honda have released teasers of their 2026 audio. Red Bull’s noise has, so far, stayed in-house. The important part, as ever, is what the numbers say behind the engine room door.
Verstappen’s camp isn’t getting carried away. Manager Raymond Vermeulen struck a pragmatic note in Dutch media: “What’s the reference for next year? Nobody knows. So it will be very clear in the first few races how things are panning out. We hear good things about the engine, but what is good? I don’t know, what’s the reference? So let’s wait and see.”
That’s the tension across the paddock right now. The 2026 power unit is not just about peak horsepower; it’s about efficiency, recovery, and how smartly teams can blend the electrical hit with the combustion curve while the car’s active aero trims drag on the straights and piles it back on for the corners. Get that wrong and you’ll look slow even with a strong ICE. Nail it and you’ll look like a genius.
For Red Bull, the stakes are exactly where you’d expect for a team that’s made winning a habit. Verstappen’s own bar hasn’t moved. The Dutchman has spent the 2025 season in the thick of it and will expect nothing less than a title-contending package when the new era dawns. Whether the first Red Bull–Ford is a rocket out of the box or a project that needs a few races to sharpen up will shape the opening phase of 2026.
The early noises — literal and metaphorical — are promising. “Crisp” isn’t lap time, but it isn’t a bad omen either. And if you’ve watched Red Bull operate over the past decade, you’ll know they’ve built their dominance on process as much as talent: clean concepts, fast iteration, and relentless execution. Translating that from chassis to full power unit program is the real test.
Until we see the cars cycle through deployment modes for the first time — active wings open, MGU‑K flowing, fuel usage trimmed to the decimal — everything else is guesswork. The dyno room can’t tell you what happens when you’re defending into Turn 1 at 330 km/h with 2% more or less battery than planned.
Verstappen, for his part, seems content to keep the excitement tempered, soundtrack jokes and all. The serious work is happening behind closed doors in Milton Keynes. The next time we hear that engine in anger, we’ll know whether “crisp” also means quick.
