Ford CEO Jim Farley says Red Bull is helping design an electric car that we’ve never heard of.
Following news that Red Bull Powertrains and Ford will partner from the 2026 F1 Championship season together, Ford CEO Jim Farley has confirmed that the two are working together on what is likely a high-performance EV.
Speaking exclusively to MotorTrend, Farley confirmed that Red Bull was designing the aero on the top-secret car.
“I was in a recent review with probably our most strategically important EV, and I turned to my skunkworks team that are developing this in secret, and I asked, ‘Hey, who’s doing the aero on this?’ And he turns to me and says, ‘Oh, they’re from Red Bull. Formula One.'”
It is the first confirmation that the partnership between the two companies goes beyond the F1 deal, which will see Ford add its name to Red Bull in the 2026 F1 Championship. Before then, Red Bull Powertrains, which is Red Bull F1’s engine manufacturing outfit, is developing a new engine for updated regulations that take effect in 2026. Ford is giving its input to this, and the result will be a powertrain that runs on eco fuels and uses a 350kW electric motor to assist with power delivery.
Red Bull also has its own road-car projects to contend with, such as the RB17 hypercar which we’re yet to see but is overseen by RB’s Chief Technical Officier and aerodynamics genius Adrian Newey.
As for the new tie-up with Ford and Red Bull, we can expect more than the secret EV. Red Bull had partnered with Aston Martin in the past and developed everything from production hypercars to special editions, and plenty of cross-branded events.
In addition to Ford’s entry in 2026 is Audi, which has now taken a minority stake in Sauber F1 and will fully develop a new powertrain to use in its 2026 F1 contender. Porsche had previously been rumoured to partner with Red Bull, but the deal did not come to fruition.