Red Bull factory, Milton Keynes, 2021

No 2023 car at Red Bull’s Friday launch but Ford rumours grow

RaceFans Round-up

Posted on

| Written by and

In the round-up: Red Bull won’t show their 2023 Formula 1 car at their launch event on Friday but rumours are growing they will reveal a new deal with a major American car manufacturer.

In brief

Ford considering F1 return with Red Bull – report

The “new car” Red Bull will present at its launch event on Friday will not be its RB19 chassis but a presentation of its livery for the 2023 F1 season, RaceFans understands.

Ford sold its Jaguar team to Red Bull in 2004
However rumours are growing the world championship will announce a tie-up with Ford. The American motoring giant’s long history in Formula 1 ended in 2004, when it sold its Jaguar team to Red Bull and withdrew as an engine supplied to Jordan.

According to The Mirror, a deal between Red Bull and Ford is expected, with a possible announcement coming during the team’s launch event.

Red Bull have set up their own powertrains division following Honda’s official withdrawal from F1 at the end of 2021. However, Honda continue to manufacture the power units that RBPT run and maintain.

Advert | Become a RaceFans supporter and go ad-free

Vasseur prepared to “fight like hell” against friend Wolff

New Ferrari team principal Frederic Vasseur says he is prepared to “fight like hell” against his friend Toto Wolff, team principal of Mercedes, during his first season with the team.

Vasseur joined Ferrari at the end of last year replacing Mattia Binotto after multiple years leading the Sauber team, currently operating as Alfa Romeo. Asked about his friendship with Wolff, Vasseur says he sees his good relationship with Wolff as a positive.

“I know that we will fight on-track,” Vasseur said. “We will fight to the stewards, we will fight in the FIA, we’ll fight for the Concorde Agreement. And this is life.

Vasseur and Wolff have a long association
“At the end of the day, I think for the global picture it’s an advantage also to have a very good collaboration between teams and on this side when the common interest of the teams, of the F1, will be to have discussion and to find an agreement. I think it will be a huge advantage for a good relationship.

“But as you know I have also a good relationship with a couple of other of my colleagues. And I think this is always good that then we have to be clever enough to speak completely our life and be sure that I will fight like hell with Toto on-track and out of the track.”

Bedrin becomes Jenzer’s second F3 entrant

Jenzer Motorsport announced that 17-year-old Nikita Bedrin will be their second driver in this year’s FIA Formula 3 championship.

Bedrin finished fourth in the UAE and German F4 championships last season, with a single race victory at Lausitzring. He also tested with the team during the post-season F3 test held at Jerez, covering 184 laps over three days.

Advert | Become a RaceFans supporter and go ad-free

Social media

Notable posts from Twitter, Instagram and more:

Advert | Become a RaceFans supporter and go ad-free

Comment of the day

This weekend’s Caption Competition winner is @jackisthestig!:

“I look forward to our two or three years together.”
Jack

Thanks to everyone who came up with caption idea this week and a special mention to Red Andy, AllTheCoolNamesWereTaken and Pat Ruadh who all came up with particularly good captions.

Happy birthday!

Happy birthday to Cliffery, Kutigz and Pmelton!

Advert | Become a RaceFans supporter and go ad-free

On this day in motorsport

Fernando Alonso, Nelson Piquet Jnr, Lucas di Grassi, Romain Grosjean and Flavio Briatore revealed the R28

Author information

Will Wood
Will has been a RaceFans contributor since 2012 during which time he has covered F1 test sessions, launch events and interviewed drivers. He mainly...
Claire Cottingham
Claire has worked in motorsport for much of her career, covering a broad mix of championships including Formula One, Formula E, the BTCC, British...

Got a potential story, tip or enquiry? Find out more about RaceFans and contact us here.

29 comments on “No 2023 car at Red Bull’s Friday launch but Ford rumours grow”

  1. Of course, not, & did anyone honestly expect otherwise?
    Only AM will certainly launch an actual 2023-spec car, but otherwise, the first pre-season testing day is the true launch day generally, as pointed out before.

  2. So now Red Bull will be running a ‘Fonda’?

    1. You mean the Infinity Red Bull Ford Honda Renault Aston Martin Red Bull Power Trains Formula One team?

      I mean it’s pretty impressive the number of partners they un through and still find another backer!

      1. Be friend with your closest enemies not friends

      2. You missed Tag Heuer.

        1. And Oracle but I think the point hit :-D

  3. The R28 should come with a “Warning: Content some may find disturbing” label. That livery was awful…

    1. @geemac At least the chassis had a degree of elegance, unlike its successor…

      1. @keithcollantine Indeed, the R29 must be the worst looking car of the modern era.

    2. @geemac I forget how Grosjean looked back in the day and my heart skipped a beat..

  4. The look that Di Grassi and Grosjean have on their face is priceless… Alonso back in that Renault for 2008.. lol

  5. I miss the days of teams actually unveiling their new car. Wished the FIA would throw their own event, like WRC, and just force them to bring their actual cars.

  6. Agree with the general sentiment that livery launches are a bit of a farce. I used to look forward to launches, but now I just wait and see what turns up on track.

    Re: Caption winner (and no I didn’t think mine was better, or even very funny in hindsight) but I was torn. It made me smile as I understood the idea of it, but the reality is that 2-3 years for a driver in one team isn’t an especially short time (and Leclerc would be in Ferrari for seven years for the proposed scenario. Quite probable, but again a fair stint). Ok, ok, I am probably over thinking it.

    1. I think he’s suggesting that the new team principal will only be there for 2-3 years!

      1. No, I get that. And as I say, it did make me smile.

        I was probably just having a bad day.

  7. Nikita Bedrin is Russian. Has the ban been lifted?

    1. He races as an “Italian”.

    2. @shimks I think he drives for another country or NA

    3. They can race under different nations’ flags if they secure a license from them, last year he raced under an Italian license.

  8. The rumours suggest that the deal between Ford and RBR is done and an announcement is expected in the presentation event of the RB19. So Ford will have Adrian Newey and his team doing the chassis, Christian running the team and taking care of politics and ex Mercedes and Honda engineers building the PU. Porsche wanted to get hold of the entire team btw.

    On the other hand, Audi are lobbying behind the scenes to get additive manufacturing technology in building PU components banned which is the main reason why Ferrari that invested heavily in the technology is still pushing back against RBPT being a new entry.

    Not to mention that the 2026 PU rules have marginalized the ICE role and removed the MGU-H to make it impossible for a new manufacturer to get it wrong the way Honda did in 2015. No one from the new manufacturers has shown real intentions to compete on a level playing field. They all want to get involved now F1 has become a money making machine but they want the guarantee to get the rules suited to them.

    1. Such a shame that they could not find a way to make things work with Audi, who knows what the issue was, but I hope this means that RB has confidence in their winning formula and that Audi just wanted to change too much.

      Ford being back in F1 in such a big way should make the american races much more lively!

      1. I thought the reason was clearly spoken out. Porsche wanted a majority stake in the team, the trio of owners didn’t want to lose control of their team. Hence negotiations broke down.

        We’ll see if and how this Ford thing works out, it’s entirely possible it’s going to be a RBPT engine with only some or even next to no involvement (other than financial) from Ford. This way Red Bull stays self-sufficient. Has significant funding for setting up their engine department in the coming years. And isn’t left out in the cold when Ford no doubt bows out in some years, as they do.

  9. AllTheCoolNamesWereTaken
    31st January 2023, 11:14

    So, can we talk about Alonso’s weirdly baggy overalls in that 2008 picture? I realize he left McLaren a lot sooner than originally expected, but surely Renault (or whichever company they outsourced to) would have had time to make a racing suit that actually fit him. Or was this Villeneuve-chic look just his style back then?

    1. Glad I’m not the only one who noticed! Makes Alonso look about 4′ 11″ tall

  10. I watched the Merc drink thing, and I’ve wondered about this for years….. the tube can’t be in the mouth the whole time because we have team radios, and they’re completely clear (and its probably dangerous to have a tube in your mouth in an accident). The driver can’t move their head forwards like its 50’s style milkshake because the further they lean forward the tube will just go away from their mouth at the same rate because it’s attached to the helmet.

    So do they push the tube towards themselves, have a drink and then pull it away again? I was quite interested when that came up on my Youtube, and Anthony Davidson I think is quite good at explaining things, but I don’t think I learnt anything new really. It seems such a trivial thing, and the fact nobody talks about it must mean its obvious.

    1. Put a straw close to your mouth. Pull it in with your tongue, pushed it out the same way, I imagine that’s pretty much how F1 drivers do it.

      1. @sjaakfoo Yeah, I think you’re right, its probably not as complicated as I’m imagining it is.

  11. Ford vs Ferrari 2, starring Max Damon and Checo Bale

  12. That Renault team photo would make a great caption competition.

    Di grassi ” hey nando, bet I get a fia championship before you get another one ”
    Grosjean ” Yeah nando if ya get in my way I’ll take ya head off”
    Piquet ” dont worry nando I’ll drive through walls for you”
    Flav ” I have a cunning plan”

Comments are closed.