Porsche may be seeking a bigger role in Formula 1 than simply serving as a power unit supplier.
Motorsport reported on Wednesday that Porsche plans to buy 50% of the Red Bull Racing F1 team, citing legal documents supplied in July to anti-cartel authorities around the globe, including in Morocco where such information is made public.
The documents allegedly mentioned a 50% buy in of “Red Bull Technology,” but Motorsport reported the deal will also extend to the Red Bull F1 team. Motorsport also reported the deal may be formally announced as soon as August 4.
While Porsche has said it is examining an F1 entry, the automaker hasn’t formally announced plans to enter the sport, either as a team owner or power unit supplier. However, outgoing Volkswagen Group CEO Herbert Diess let slip in May that Porsche together with fellow VW Group brand Audi have been given the green light to enter F1.
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Audi is thought to have made an attempt to purchase McLaren as a means to enter F1. It’s currently thought Audi is now in negotiations with Sauber, which currently competes in F1 as Alfa Romeo.
According to Motorsport, Porsche and Red Bull Racing planned to make their partnership known during the 2022 Austrian Grand Prix in mid-July but decided to put things on hold until after the FIA approved regulations for the new power unit due to be introduced in 2026. One of the key conditions for Porsche is the use of 100% sustainable fuel, something that was confirmed by F1 organizers this week.
Porsche has a history in F1. It competed as a constructor in the 1950s and ‘60s and then briefly as a power unit supplier in the 1980s and early ‘90s. While Audi hasn’t competed in F1, it does have a history of grand prix racing, having dominated on racetracks together with Mercedes-Benz during the 1930s, when it was the Auto Union.
Stay tuned.
