Ford Performance director Mark Rushbrook is pleased that partner Red Bull seems to be competing at the front of the Formula 1 field with the brand new power unit. This season, the Austrians are on the grid for the first time with a completely own engine, which the team developed with the help of Ford. Although the top man is pleasantly surprised by the performance of the engine so far, he does warn: ‘The power unit is still very sensitive to environmental factors’.
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Red Bull is on the grid this season for the first time with a self-produced power unit. Under the name Red Bull Powertrains, the Austrian team developed its own engine for the first time in collaboration with Ford. Toto Wolff even called the power unit of his rivals the ‘benchmark’ during the test days in Bahrain. Although Ford top man Mark Rushbrook does not want to go that far yet four Grands Prix later, he is satisfied with the performance of the engine so far.
“It has been a long road – three and a half years to get the power unit on the track – so it was fantastic to see that in Melbourne at the start of the season,” he tells Motorsport.com candidly. “It’s great that Ford is fully back in the sport. We honestly knew it would be an incredible challenge to even start with the new power unit. But to now be competing so well definitely feels good.”
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‘Power unit is sensitive to environmental factors’
According to Rushbrook, Red Bull is certainly competing at the front of the Formula 1 field thanks in part to the power unit, although how competitive the engine is per Grand Prix still depends on the exact race conditions. “I think the conditions definitely have an influence, because these power units are very sensitive to temperature fluctuations and environmental factors,” the top man further explains. “So we see differences under those different conditions, and that is also something we need to investigate.”
Rushbrook agrees with Verstappen that the Mercedes engine is the actual benchmark for the rest of the field. “Yes, it is also quite good,” the Ford top man concludes with a smile.
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