Could Porsche Formula 1 Entry Mean Red Bull Will Leave?- a Look Into the Leaked Document

As we all know, Red Bull remained in a close partnership with Honda, who left the premiere class of motorsport at the end of the 2021 season. The Austrian team is using their newly created Red Bull Powertrain company, which basically was supposed to be sponsored by Porsche.

The Red Bull powertrain division is responsible for building the cars used by Max Verstappen and Sergio Perez and the essential components purchased by AlphaTauri. The stake that Porsche wants is quite significant, and it can't make you wonder if it represents an exit plan for the Austrian racing team. Still, this is a long shot for the moment, but it is not that impossible. We saw this case with Racing Point just two years ago when they rebranded as Aston Martin but kept most of the team engineers, mechanics, logistics, etc.

Basically, a couple of days ago, an official paper coming straight from Morroco was leaked revealing Porsche's strategy to buy a stake of 50% of Red Bull Racing Formula One operation. In addition, an engine program between the Austrian team and the Stuttgart-based automaker was also made public by mistake.

However, as was expected, the document has been removed from the public eyes and pages of the Moroccan competition council's website since this was recognized. The paper suggested an early August public announcement from Porsche and Red Bull.

The alliance will represent a massive win for the Austrian team because Porsche is one of the best and most experienced manufacturers in the history of motorsport. Combining all the incredible engineers from both groups could only bring great results and great racing cars. Besides, the development of the engine between the two is a considerable advantage compared with the others that are buying powertrains from teams like Ferrari or Mercedes. We can all remember the saga between Christian Horner and Cyril Abiteboul when Red Bull had to modify the car to fit the Renault engine that they bought.

In principle, the Volkswagen Group supported both Porsche and Audi's plans to enter Formula One earlier this year, with Porsche as a partner of Red Bull and Audi as a massive project with its own in-house build engine.

For the past couple of years, merging with an already existing F1 team has been the way for automakers such as Alfa Romeo or Aston Martin, showing us how hard it is to create a squad from scratch. That is precisely what Porsche and Audi are looking to do, with the last one looking up to link with Sauber.

"VW's board decision is that if the technical regulations meet the criteria, then they have the mandate to go into Formula 1. That primarily relates to cost cap, sustainability, zero-emission fuel, equal opportunity as a newcomer, so more dyno capacity, and so on", declared Dr. Helmut Marko for motorsport.com.

"But in purely formal terms, these new regulations don't exist yet. The FIA president is supposedly going to put it to the vote soon in an e-mail vote. Only then will things officially get underway. They're just working toward the 2026 regulations. If a new manufacturer comes along, they can cooperate."

Besides all this, Marko confirmed that AlphaTauri would remain under Red Bull's complete control, meaning that Porsche would provide engines as well for the smaller Italian squad.

As a whole, 2026 is in the distant future, so many things could happen. Still, a whole buyout by Porsche is not impossible, given their money and power.