Red Bull Powertrains Limited was established in February 2021 after Red Bull Advanced Technologies signed an exclusive distribution agreement with Honda for the use of Formula One engines from the 2022 season onward. Honda's decision to withdraw from Formula One at the end of 2021 left its two customer teams, Red Bull Racing and AlphaTauri (later renamed RB), without a power unit supplier. The solution was to form a wholly owned internal engine division that would take formal ownership of the supply relationship, with Honda continuing to assemble the power units and provide trackside and race support through the end of the 2025 season.
The company operates from a facility near the Red Bull Racing chassis department in Milton Keynes. In April 2021 Ben Hodgkinson was announced as technical director; Hodgkinson had served as head of mechanical engineering at Mercedes AMG High Performance Powertrains since 2017 and had worked at Mercedes' Brixworth engine facility for twenty years. Several other senior Mercedes engine engineers followed, including Steve Blewett as production director, Omid Mostaghimi as chief of engine, electronics and energy recovery, Pip Clode as head of mechanical design for energy recovery, Anton Mayo as head of combustion power unit design, and Steve Brodie leading combustion engine operations.
Between 2022 and 2025, Red Bull Powertrains supplied both Red Bull Racing and the team then known as AlphaTauri and later RB with power units that remained Honda's intellectual property and were developed, produced and maintained by Honda. The units were renamed under Red Bull branding in accordance with Honda's withdrawal from the championship.
The first unit, designated RBPTH001, was a derivative of the Honda RA621H modified to accommodate the new E10 fuels introduced from 2022. Changes included revised ignition timing, cylinder pressure, and MGU-H calibration; a specialised coating developed by Honda's motorcycle division was applied to cylinder walls; and the injection system, exhaust, and turbocharger components were all optimised for the new fuel blend. Although the RBPTH001 was heavier than its predecessor, it demonstrated greater thermal efficiency despite the reduced energy density of E10 fuel. A second designation, RBPTH002, covered subsequent seasons under the same arrangement.
Due to the Formula One engine development freeze in place since September 2022, Red Bull Powertrains made no independent technical changes to the Honda units during this period, serving primarily as a commercial and operational entity through 2025.
On 4 February 2023, Red Bull Racing and the Ford Motor Company announced a strategic partnership for the 2026 Formula One season, coinciding with the introduction of new power unit regulations that substantially increased the role of electrical energy recovery. Ford agreed to contribute expertise in battery cell technology, electric motor development, power unit control software, analytics, and combustion engine development. The company would return to the Formula One grid for the first time since its involvement ended with the Ford Cosworth era.
Following this agreement, the organisation was renamed Red Bull Ford Powertrains, with the new name simplified in December 2025 to Red Bull Ford. The partnership gave Ford a prominent branding position on both Red Bull Racing and the team then operating as RB, with both teams entering 2026 as Ford-badged engine customers for the first time.
Red Bull Ford launched its 2026 power unit, the DM01, on 15 January 2026. The unit was named in honour of Dietrich Mateschitz, the Austrian entrepreneur and co-founder of Red Bull GmbH who had died in October 2022. Mateschitz had been personally involved in establishing Red Bull Powertrains prior to his death, and the naming of the first independently developed power unit after him reflected the centrality of his vision to the project.
The DM01 represented Red Bull Ford Powertrains' first fully independent Formula One power unit, designed and manufactured entirely by the company rather than adapted from Honda's technology. It entered competition from the 2026 season, supplying both Red Bull-owned Formula One teams in what represented the culmination of the five-year project begun when Honda's withdrawal first prompted the creation of the in-house engine division.
The trajectory of Red Bull Powertrains from emergency successor arrangement to independent manufacturer is one of the more ambitious infrastructure projects in recent Formula One history. Assembling a technical staff drawn substantially from Mercedes' engine operation, the company was required to develop from a standing start the capability to design, build and race a complete Formula One hybrid power unit within approximately four years, while simultaneously managing a competitive supply arrangement with the sport's reigning constructors' champions. The Ford partnership brought not only engineering resources in the electric and software domains most critical to the 2026 regulations, but also one of the most historically prominent names in American and European motorsport back to the Formula One grid.