Ford has been a global powerhouse in racing since 1901. Henry Ford, attempting to repair his reputation after a failed attempt at running his first car company, beat an established and accomplished car maker and racing driver, Alexander Winton, in a sweepstakes race in Grosse Pointe, Michigan. Ever since then, Ford has understood the phrase, “Race on Sunday, sell on Monday,” to be true for them.
Most people know Ford’s racing success at the 24 Hours of Le Mans with the Ford GT40, re-popularized by the blockbuster film by James Mangold starring Matt Damon and Christian Bale, “Ford v. Ferrari”. However, did you know that Ford were an engine supplier in Formula One from 1967 until 2004? Even more, they are the third-winningest engine manufacturer behind Mercedes-Benz and Ferrari. But something even more wild … to date, they have the most successful engine track record of all time.
Racing History Personified
In 1967 when Ford debuted their engine called the “Double Four Valve”, or DFV for short, which was a combined partnership between Ford and Cosworth, another famous engine builder. It won the first race it had entered. The Dutch Grand Prix in June of 1967 was won by Jim Clark in a Lotus Ford.
From 1967 until 1985, the DFV Ford engine would undergo a few tweaks, but it powered a staggering 155 race wins out of 262 races it entered during that time. Let’s do the math on that quickly: if it entered 262 races, winning 155 of them, that’s an average winning percentage of 59%. In 18 years, it won FIFTY-NINE PERCENT of the time. To give you some perspective, Tom Brady played in the NFL for 22 seasons and has a career-winning percentage of 75%. Hopefully, that gives you a good understanding of how dominant Ford was at that time. Sadly, they’d only go on to win 19 more races between 1986 and 2004. They then sold what was the Jaguar Racing team they powered to Red Bull Racing in 2005.
To date, Ford is tied with Mercedes-Benz for powering 13 Formula 1 driver championships. Only Ferrari has more at 15. The first driver to win a championship with a Ford motor was the fantastically mustachioed Graham Hill in 1968 with a Lotus Ford. The last was Michael Schumacher’s first championship in 1994 in a Benetton Ford. Keep in mind Ford had just entered F1 as an engine builder in 1967.
To The Future, And Beyond!
Starting in 2026, Ford will be coming back to the glory that is F1 to power the Red Bull Racing team, with two-time (so far) world champion driver Max Verstappen, who is contracted to be with the team through 2028.
Red Bull Racing has won the Formula One Constructors’ Championship a total of five times, sweeping four years in a row from 2010 to 2013 and then once again in 2019. Red Bull’s drivers have won a total of 6 driver’s championships. Sebastian Vettel won four in a row driving for them from 2010-2013, and now their current hotshoe, Max, has won the last two in a row for 2021 and 2022, with a high likelihood of winning his third championship this year in 2023.
In 2021 Red Bull created a new engine manufacturer called Red Bull Powertrains, RBPT, to take over for Honda after they decided to leave Formula 1 as an engine supplier after 2022. From 2026 onwards, it will become Red Bull Ford Powertrains.
Benna Ford
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