Red Bull Ford impresses: Will McLaren, Williams, or Aston Martin come knocking soon?

When Lawrence Stroll has a brief chat with Bill Ford — the chairman of Ford Motor Company — in Australia, there are always smart alecks who claim an engine deal between Aston Martin and Ford is being discussed. Nonsense, of course, because barely two races into Formula 1’s new era, Aston Martin co-owner Stroll isn’t about to sideline their own engine partner Honda.

All F1 teams have long-term contracts with their current engine suppliers (or build their own power units), so no one is switching in the short term. Still, everyone will keep their eyes open now that Red Bull Ford has built an engine that is, to put it mildly, surprising.

While Red Bull Racing has had a tricky start to the season, the power unit isn’t to blame. There are teething troubles (where aren’t there?), but overall the Red Bull Ford is reliable and powerful. Who would have expected that, since for a new OEM the first months — often even years — are usually a huge struggle.

Credit where it’s due: team boss Christian Horner once managed to poach the right people, especially from Honda and Mercedes; together they have succeeded in making an ambitious Red Bull project work. Once the Austrians also have the chassis side of the car in order, there’s excellent potential for Max Verstappen and Isack Hadjar.

That gets noticed in the paddock. Lawrence Stroll surely has the big Ford boss’s phone number in his mobile, in case the collaboration with Honda ultimately fizzles out. And what about Williams and McLaren; two teams with a Mercedes engine.

While the Mercedes works team is so far flawless and unbeatable, these teams are dealing with issues on that same Mercedes engine. Mercedes insists the customer teams receive the same quality engines as it uses itself, but Zak Brown and Andrea Stella seem to harbor some cautious doubts about that.

In any case, Toto Wolff has previously stated he wants to shed at least one customer team in the future. Alpine seems likely to stay, especially if Mercedes wants to take a minority stake in the French outfit. That would leave Williams or McLaren to look elsewhere. A Red Bull Ford that proves itself as an excellent engine could be a possible alternative.

It’s quite possible that at some point Red Bull and Ford will receive a request from a rival team to discuss the possibilities of supplying power units. In that case, an interesting internal discussion awaits: does Red Bull Ford even want to supply power units to a third team?

That would require deploying extra personnel as well as making more investments. There’s also the risk that the customer team could outperform Red Bull Racing itself. On the other hand, there’s the advantage of scale; the more data you can gather, the better and faster you can improve engines.

None of this is on the table. Not at the moment, at least. However, if the Red Bull Ford engine continues to develop, it’s very conceivable that another team might come by for a cup of coffee.