After months of negotiations, leaked government applications and the entry of a sister brand, Porsche has withdrawn from negotiations for a joint Formula 1 venture with Red Bull Racing.
It leaves Porsche without an obvious way into the sport in a blow to the 2026 power unit regulations, which were in a major part written to be attractive to new engine builders, with Volkswagen generally and Porsche specifically targeted.
As it stands, only Audi will join the sport in 2026 — a net-neutral result given Honda still plans to complete its protracted exit by the same date.
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Announcing the collapse of the months-long talks, Porsche cited irreconcilable differences over the power-sharing structure of the proposed joint venture as a major stumbling block.
“The premise was always that a partnership would be based on an equal footing, which would include not only an engine partnership but also the team,” the statement read. “This could not be achieved.”
Christian Horner elaborated that Red Bull Racing has the capacity to stand alone as a works constructor without the need for a manufacturer partnership that would risk diluting the team’s independent principles.
“In the end it wasn’t the right deal for us strategically to benefit us on the journey that we’re on,” he said.
“One of our core strengths has been our independence and our quick decision-making and lack of bureaucracy.
“We’re a race team fundamentally, and that enables us to make quick decisions, effective decisions, and react very quickly as a race team.
“I think we’ve seen on so many occasions manufacturers have been less autonomous in their decision-making and that was a key aspect of protecting what we have and how we operate, which has proved to be reasonably successful.”
Porsche, however, wouldn’t countenance buying 50 per cent of Red Bull’s UK F1 operations without a significant say in operations, and thus the matter came to impasse despite appearing to be as good as done only a few months ago.
So what’s next for these two racing giants and the prospect of an expanded Formula 1?
RED BULL READY TO GO IT ALONE
Even while Red Bull was negotiating to bring Porsche on board, the energy drinks giant protested that Red Bull Powertrains didn’t need a manufacturer involved to fly.
Indeed Porsche was never really going to be a technical partner in the development of the Red Bull motor anyway; it was effectively buying into a turnkey operation with a view to capitalising on the infrastructure already built up — a glorified badging exercise, at least to begin with.
Red Bull had long been adamant that it wouldn’t sink money into an engine program, but the sport’s rude financial health combined with the cost cap has made it financially palatable. Further, as Horner has emphasised, there are potentially significant performance gains on offer for being one of only two teams to build its car and engine on the same campus, the other being Ferrari.
That said, while Red Bull Powertrains has fired up its first experimental combustion engine, that doesn’t mean it’s up to speed. It’s not yet fully staffed, and given the complexity of the energy recovery component of the new engine — electrical energy will be around 50 per cent of total power output — getting the right expertise involved will be crucial.
It’s been suggested this could reignite a partnership with Honda, which is rumoured to be mulling a return, and Horner didn’t attempt to play down the possibility.
“Honda, again, are a great company,” he said. “They announced their withdrawal from F1 to focus their attention on the electrification of their product, moving away from a combustion engine — you would assume that if they were looking to return to F1, that would have to be taken into account.
“Whether or not there was some interest on the battery side and any potential synergies there could be an interesting discussion. But the combustion and mechanical side of the engine, we’re on a road map to 2026 that we’re very happy with.”
However, Honda tends to engage in motorsport as a technical exercise; merely contributing to another company’s program may not appeal, especially if entering as a full-blown constructor is a live option for the Japanese marque. That said, if it’s attempting to increase electrification among its entire business, being Red Bull’s hybridisation partner may be a way in.
Formula 1 CEO Stefano Domenicali has also suggested there may be other manufacturers waiting in the wings ready to capitalise on the collapsed talks.
“I believe that we as F1 are currently a very inclusive platform,” he said, per Autosport. “There are also other manufacturers sitting at the table of the engineers who prefer not to come out into the open.”
And Helmut Marko told Austrian radio station OE3 that “we have received some inquiries now that the Porsche cancellation has become official”.
And if a technical partnership falls through entirely, Red Bull Racing may simply choose to badge its engine under similar terms to its past agreements with TAG Heuer and Aston Martin — that is, on purely commercial terms.
PORSCHE KEEPING ITS OPTIONS OPEN
The breakdown in talks has left Porsche without a clear pathway into the sport, but in its statement it emphasised that Formula 1 remained an attractive proposition.
“With the finalised rule changes, the racing series nevertheless remains an attractive environment for Porsche, which will continue to be monitored,” the statement read.
But there are no existing works teams with whom a partnership would make obvious sense in the way Red Bull did, and it reportedly doesn’t have the capacity to start building a power unit from scratch without significant capital expenditure, which wasn’t part of the plan.
Williams has been floated a possible buy-in opportunity. The historic team is currently owned by US investment firm Dorilton Capital, which would presumably welcome an injection of funding.
Williams team principal Jost Capito is also a former motorsport director at Volkswagen, during which time the brand dominated the World Rally Championship — an obvious link.
Aston Martin is also rumoured to be open to a sale, with Lawrence Stroll supposedly disillusioned by the return on his considerable investment.
But that still wouldn’t answer the engine question. None of Mercedes, Ferrari or Renault — or Honda if it were to re-enter — would consent to having their engines rebadged, and while Horner said Red Bull would eventually have the capacity to power four teams, he admitted that Red Bull Racing and AlphaTauri were the principal focus in the immediate term.
Would Audi, being a fellow Volkswagen stablemate, be open to such a deal? It could be a viable stopgap solution while Porsche builds up its own engine infrastructure, a task for which it’s now around a year behind, based on the establishment of Red Bull Powertrains last year.
That said, Porsche’s plans for an initial public offering later this year would mean the connection between the two brands isn’t as logical as it may sound.
Audi CEO Markus Duesmann said two weeks ago that the two brands would remain separate in their operation, albeit at a time the Red Bull partnership was still on the cards.
“We raced Porsche in Le Mans with completely separate operations, and in this case we will have completely separate operations,” he said. “We will have our operations in Germany, and if Porsche enters, they will have their operations in the UK — completely separate.”
THE WILDCARD OPTION
It would be a significant level of commitment, but a partnership with prospective F1 team Andretti would be mutually beneficial for both parties.
Formula 1 is clearly keen for Porsche’s involvement, it having been integral to the rule-making process for 2026, and the inclusion of another high-profile brand would have obvious benefits for the sport.
Andretti, meanwhile, is adamant that it’s ready to begin producing Formula 1 cars, with the company investing in a new headquarters in Indianapolis to bring all its motorsport activities under one roof.
However, both F1 and several teams have been cool on the possibility of the US marque joining the sport, contending that it wouldn’t add enough value to offset diluting the current 10-way split in prize money.
Andretti with Porsche, on the other hand, might be attractive enough to change minds.
The two companies already have a relationship in Formula E, where from next season Porsche will supply Andretti with powertrains. Expanding it to Formula 1 would offer both a gateway into the sport.
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Mercedes boss Toto Wolff, who’s been one of the most outspoken team principals against Andretti’s admittance to the sport, struck a notably more conciliatory tone when asked whether he’d be accepting of an Andretti-Porsche entry.
“The question is very easy,” he said. “Formula 1 prospers because we have 10 teams each with a different DNA that have shown commitment to Formula 1 and have most of the teams contributed over many years more than a few billion in spending. This is what makes Formula 1 what it is today.
“If someone new wants to come in — and everybody is free to pitch that to the FIA — then the FIA and Formula 1 need to understand how accretive that team can be for our business.
“That hasn’t been the case so far.
“If a team comes in with an OEM and says, ‘This is what we want to do’, it’s obviously a very different game and will trigger different considerations.
“Sharing the cake if the cake is larger is no problem.”
It’s a solution that would still require significant funding for an engine program, which itself carries substantial risk, but with Andretti clearly keen to build up the chassis side and the two companies already engaged in business, it’s a partnership that just might work.
