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This is why Ford rejoined the top echelon of motorsport and what it means for its future hybrid cars.
“We’re here to stay.” With that Bill Ford, the executive chairman of Ford Motor Company, underscores the company’s long-term commitment to F1.
Unless you’ve been living under a rock the last few weeks, F1 fans will have found it hard to escape the controversy around the sport's latest regulations.
The Ford executive doesn’t share the concerns and is looking at the long game instead.
Speaking to Drive at the Australian Grand Prix last month, he said: “We like it because we chose to come back into the sport with this new set of regulations. I think it aligns very well with a very bright future for performance hybrids.”
Indeed, performance hybrids look to be the way forward for fans of hot Fords, especially in this era of emissions-based road vehicle regulations.
“Everything we're doing in Formula One and in our powertrain partnership with Red Bull is ultimately going to inform how we develop and continue to push performance around our hybrid powertrains in the future,” Ford says.
Indeed, it appears that the best hope for the iconic Ford V8 is some form of hybridisation, with electric-assisted versions of the Mustang or GT supercar likely to arrive at some point.
“It was the right time for us to come back into the sport due to the regulation changes and just the growth the sport has had over these last five years,” Ford says.
Indeed, viewership of F1 has exploded since the release of the Netflix ‘Drive to Survive’ show.
In the past 10 years, annual viewing figures for F1 have risen more than fourfold from 400 million to 1.83 billion last year. Ford is adamant that the stewardship of the sport is working in the right direction.
“We're here to stay. We trust F1 and Liberty Media to make the right decisions to keep the sport very, very healthy and continuing to grow in the way that it has for the last few years. And we'll adapt to whatever changes they see fit for the strength of the sport,” said Ford.
Andy brings almost 30 years automotive writing experience to his role at Drive. When he wasn’t showing people which way the Nürburgring went, he freelanced for outlets such as Car, Autocar, and The Times. After contributing to Top Gear Australia, Andy subsequently moved Down Under, serving as editor at MOTOR and Wheels. As Drive’s Road Test Editor, he’s at the heart of our vehicle testing, but also loves to spin a long-form yarn.
