Ford will welcome GM as F1 rival, says performance chief

Ford will return to F1 in 2026 as a technical partner for the highly successful team Red Bull Racing, an outfit Ford previously owned when the team raced as a Jaguar.

Audi also plans to join F1 in 2026 as both a team and a power unit supplier, and Mark Rushbrook, Ford's performance chief, said in an interview with the Associated Press on the eve of last weekend's Monaco Grand Prix that he would be joining a fellow automaker, namely General Motors. He said he would like to see more competition with Lal Motors.

"We went to the race to compete with other manufacturers, and although there are already many manufacturers in Formula 1, we would like to welcome General Motors into the sport," he said.

GM last year announced plans to partner with Andretti, who wants to enter the sport, which has already been approved by the fia, the governing body sanctioning f1. GM at the time said it would compete with Andretti using the Cadillac brand, initially using the supplier's power unit, but eventually wanting to compete using its own power unit.

However, GM-Andretti's bid was knocked back on May 1 by Formula1Management, which holds commercial rights to the sport. The parties are continuing negotiations, and entry may still be possible in 2028, the earliest when the GM power unit will be allowed. GM-Andretti's bid was originally seeking entry soon in 2025, using a Renault power unit.

According to Rushbrook, another possibility is that GM could enter as a purely power unit supplier to one or more of the existing 10 teams. Similarly, Audi has overtaken the struggling Swiss team Sauber to enter. In the original GM Andretti bid, it was planned to establish the 11th team, based in the US but with support from the UK division.

When Ford announced his return to F1 with Red Bull in 2023, there was no sign that the team's star, aerodynamist Adrian Newy, would quit after the current season. Now Ford does not rule out that he will join another team, so he may be competing with Newy.

Newy's car design from 2023 is the most dominant in the history of the sport, recording 22 wins in 21 races. In addition to the titles of current Red Bull driver Max Verstappen, Newway designed a row of cars that provided four titles for Sebastian Vettel.