Ford says Red Bull’s 2026 power unit is on target — now comes the scary bit
Ford’s top brass insist the Red Bull Powertrains-Ford unit is exactly where it should be on the roadmap to 2026. That’s the good news. The reality check comes next, on a cold January morning in Barcelona, when three years of simulations and spreadsheets meet tarmac.
“We are to plan, so where we need to be, but it all comes together when it’s actually in the car and on track,” Ford Performance’s global director Mark Rushbrook told Motorsport.com, striking a calm-but-itchy tone ahead of the first proper running.
That first outing is a private test at the Circuit de Barcelona-Catalunya from 26–30 January, a behind-closed-doors shakedown before Bahrain hosts two public tests on 11–13 and 18–20 February. Consider it the moment Red Bull-Ford’s ambitious engine program steps into the spotlight — alongside fellow newcomer Audi — as F1’s 2026 overhaul bears down on everyone.
Rushbrook didn’t dress it up: those initial laps will tell them what the labs can’t. “Our computer tools are great for designing; our labs are great for evaluating and developing the hardware, and the calibration that goes with it,” he said. “But until you get it all together on an actual racetrack, you haven’t seen everything.”
If the early milestones are in the bag, the to-do list has shifted from big blocks to fine brushstrokes. Power, performance, and reliability sit at the top of the chart; drivability — the way the software, energy deployment and throttle maps make the thing behave in a driver’s hands — is where the current grind is happening.
“When it comes to the timelines that were developed early on in the programme, we’ve been hitting those,” Rushbrook said. “The work right now is the details of that calibration and the drivability… some in the computer, some in the lab and some in the simulator together with the drivers. That’s where the focus is now.”
Max Verstappen, never shy about what he wants from a power unit, has already heard this engine sing on the dyno. His verdict? Encouraging, if clipped. “It sounded good,” he said on Red Bull’s Talking Bull podcast. “It sounded, like, crisp… I’m not sure they actually develop on the noise, but it made a good noise. I mean, it’s not a V10.”
Noise won’t win points, but first impressions matter — and Verstappen’s first real taste of what he’ll race in 2026 is weeks away. The reigning benchmark will be partnered by Isack Hadjar when the new rules arrive, with the Frenchman stepping up to Red Bull after an eye-catching rookie season at Racing Bulls. The engine’s competitiveness could be a defining thread in that next chapter.
There’s a quiet confidence around Milton Keynes and Dearborn that the foundations are strong. Still, nobody at this level pretends the first miles will be smooth. Every manufacturer has its own moment where theory meets heat soak, vibrations, crank harmonics and sneaky software gremlins. The trick isn’t perfection out of the crate — it’s how fast you learn and how few nights you lose doing it.
Red Bull’s move into full works engine territory, with Ford as partner, is one of the stories of this regulation change. It’s bold, it’s expensive, and it’s the kind of risk you take only if you believe your culture of execution will translate on the most complex piece of tech in the car. Audi will have its own day of reckoning. So will everyone else, to varying degrees.
Rushbrook calls that late-January run “an important date, and an important week,” and he’s right. It’s the first time we’ll see whether the slides, the simulations and the swagger have a lap time to go with them. If the base is solid and the drivability is close, Red Bull-Ford can spend February refining rather than firefighting. If the stopwatch isn’t kind, the calendar suddenly looks a lot shorter.
Either way, the noise coming out of the dyno room — crisp or otherwise — is about to meet the only metric that matters. And after years of secrecy, the most fascinating project on the 2026 grid is finally going to speak for itself.
