Ford has offered a revealing look into its 20-year journey back to Formula 1 for 2026, and explained why it now has an “all-in” commitment to motorsport under its Ford Racing banner.
Will Ford, general manager of global racing for the company, spoke extensively about the “critical steps” Ford has taken to harness the passion that comes with being involved in motorsport.
Ford was speaking in an on-stage interview ahead of the Miami Grand Prix at ‘Fueling the future’, an event put together by The Race and Axios Live in downtown Miami to mark the city’s rise as a hub for international sports dealmaking.
Here are five takeaways from what Ford said in front of a packed audience in the Miami Design District.
Why Ford couldn’t ignore F1’s audience
F1’s boom in popularity hasn’t only grown the sport’s fanbase, it’s transformed the demographics that companies can reach by being part of the global show.
“This is an audience that we can’t afford to not be speaking to,” said Ford. “If you look at our brand and our core products, our customer demographics trend much older, and very male oriented.
“Formula 1 is the exact opposite. It’s very young, very female-oriented fan base. So it’s very important for our brand to be reaching this audience in a way that they find exciting and appealing and attractive.”
Always paying attention
Ford walked away from F1 when it sold the Jaguar team to Red Bull at the end of 2004. And while it often felt like the manufacturer might never come back, Ford said that the company always kept an eye on F1’s direction.
Once it realised F1’s boom in popularity, particularly in the United States, was more than just a ‘blip’, it knew it was time to come back.
“During those 20 years, we were always monitoring the health of the sport,” said Ford. “We didn’t just exit and not pay attention to it. We were waiting for the right time to come back and it was really a no brainer.
“It was actually a pretty quick decision once we decided we were serious about it.
“You look at the growth the sport has had obviously in North America in particular, the way that Liberty Media and Stefano [Domenicali, F1 president & CEO] have really modernised the business and the business model around the sport.
“Formula 1 has always been and continues to be the pinnacle of motorsport and technological innovation for our industry. There’s a lot of reasons why it made sense.”
Acknowledging a ‘full circle’ moment
Ford’s partnership with Red Bull means it came back to F1 in a link-up with the same team it sold after five disappointing seasons running it as Jaguar Racing at the start of the 21st century.
Ford acknowledged the Jaguar period as “not the brightest spot in our motorsport history”, saying “there was a lot of other things going on with the business at that time, where we were never really able to give that the justice we probably should”.
But his view is that returning to the team it once owned is in fact a “cool, full-circle moment”.
A bigger commitment to motorsport
While the Miami GP week naturally made Formula 1 the focus of the conversation on stage, the return to F1 is part of a wider increasing commitment to motorsport in general.
Ford hopes to capitalise on this by having restructured several departments, turning what used to be several areas of the business that sat under the Ford Performance umbrella, to create a clearer vision through a rebrand to Ford Racing.
“This is really an all-in commitment that we’re undertaking right now,” said Ford. “We made a really critical step last year when we had Ford Performance sort of fragmented throughout the organisation.
“So we took all the different parts of Ford Performance, brought them all together under one roof, rebranded back to Ford Racing, and really the intention is to build a generational business.
“This commitment to Ford Racing right now is to make sure that the most passionate side of our business has a commitment that is here to stay.”
The perfect ambassador
The company also has an association with ex-F1 driver Daniel Ricciardo, which Ford said was “a very natural fit”.
“The first time I met Daniel, he told me, ‘Hey, I owned a Ford Raptor before I even owned a house!’ So he was already in love with the product.
“And over the course of us getting to know each other, as it was getting closer to his Formula 1 days being over, we started talking about what life after Formula 1 might look like for him.
“There was just a very natural fit, and the timing was perfect with us coming back into Formula 1. The fanbase and the audience that he has, I think we’re going to be doing a lot of fun stuff with him going forward.”
