Marco Rossi · F1 Correspondent
Max Verstappen’s victory in Sepang is the first for Red Bull Ford Powertrains, and that in the very first season as an engine manufacturer. For Ford, a drought of 23 years comes to an end, and precisely with the team that once sold it itself.
In the fall of 2004, Ford withdrew from Formula 1 and sold its Jaguar team to a beverage company from Austria. This racing team became Red Bull Racing. Good two decades later, Max Verstappen drove to victory in exactly this team at the Bahrain Grand Prix in Malaysia, powered by an engine built in Milton Keynes and bearing the name Ford. How Verstappen won the turbulent race is quickly told. What this victory means for Red Bull requires a bit more space.
From Customer to Manufacturer
Since the first race in 2005, Red Bull had always been a customer or partner of other engine manufacturers, most recently Honda. When the Japanese announced their exit, the team made a decision in February 2021 that many in the paddock considered bold: Red Bull founded Red Bull Powertrains, its own engine division. Until the end of 2025, the cars still ran on the acquired Honda technology, while a completely new power unit for the 2026 regulations was being developed in parallel in Milton Keynes.
Red Bull obtained some of the know-how from its strongest competitor. In April 2021, Red Bull brought in Ben Hodgkinson, previously head of mechanical development at Mercedes High Performance Powertrains, as technical director, followed by five more senior engineers from Brixworth in May. In February 2023, Ford joined as a partner. The first engine of the new era bears the designation DM01, named after Red Bull founder Dietrich Mateschitz, who passed away in 2022.
A Difficult Path Through the First Season
The debut year was not easy. Verstappen himself spoke after the race of a very complicated and tough start to the season with all sorts of problems. He secured the first podium finish with the new engine in May in Canada, with further top-3 results following later, including at Monza. On Saturday in Sepang came the first pole position, also the first of the season for a car without a Mercedes engine.
“We knew from the start that Red Bull Ford Powertrains had built a strong engine, but we also knew its limitations,” Verstappen said. “Step by step we got closer, and today we made it. This is really special and an emotional moment.” To win a race in the first year as a new engine manufacturer was “honestly just incredible and something everyone should really be proud of.”
Team principal Laurent Mekies spoke of another milestone in the team’s history, the first victory as an engine manufacturer in the very first season. “Everyone in Milton Keynes and at the track deserved this moment and should celebrate it as an important step toward many more victories.” The sister team also celebrated with them, Racing Bulls team principal Alan Permane explicitly congratulated the engine department on the first victory in the first year.
Ford’s Return to the Winner’s List
For Ford, the afternoon has its own significance. Ford’s last Formula 1 victory with the Ford nameplate was 23 years ago: Giancarlo Fisichella won the 2003 Brazilian Grand Prix in a Jordan with an engine built by Cosworth. With Cosworth, Ford had written Formula 1 history for decades, and the legendary DFV is among the most successful engines the sport has ever seen. Today’s power unit, by contrast, is a collaborative development, a hybrid system that generates almost half its power electrically.
Verstappen’s pole on Saturday also wrote a piece of Ford history. It was the first for a Ford engine since 1999, when Rubens Barrichello drove to pole position at Magny-Cours in the Stewart-Ford. That team from back then became Jaguar a year later and Red Bull Racing in 2005. Pole and victory with the Ford logo, 27 and 23 years later respectively, both went to the same racing team.
A Milestone, But Not Yet a Turning Point
Historic as the victory is, it changes little in the big picture. Andrea Kimi Antonelli finished second and leads the championship with an 84-point advantage after Russell’s retirement, seven races from the end. The success came moreover in a race where strategy, safety cars, and tire choice played a major role. Verstappen also remained critical: he called his start terrible, once again he had no grip when releasing the clutch, and the new engines with all their software were simply complicated.
For Red Bull, that’s beside the point. When Mateschitz brought the team to the grid in 2005, it was a customer team with great ambitions. With the Sepang victory, Red Bull is now what he dreamed of: a works team that builds chassis and engine itself and wins with them. The fact that Verstappen, with his 72nd Grand Prix victory, also matched Michael Schumacher’s Ferrari win tally fits a day on which more than one circle has closed.
