Rumor: Porsche may be forced to badge the Audi F1 engine

Porsche was supposed to partner with Red Bull, until a planned 50% buy-in collapsed amid fears among the existing Red Bull Racing leadership it would have to cede too much control to the Germans.

Porsche was never intending to build an entire F1 engine themselves and the plan was for Porsche to just do the electrification portion of the Red Bull engine, with Red Bull Powertrains Division doing the internal combustion portion.

With Porsche not having the capacity at its own motorsport facility to build an F1 standard engine at present, partnering with Red Bull would have given it access to the Red Bull Powertrains division created to solve the gap presented by Honda’s announced F1 exit, although their plans have since changed.

With 2026 approaching fast, Porsche is likely going to have to use the internal combustion engine their sister VW company, Audi, is designing, with Porsche doing the electrical components (Battery, MGU-K – KERS, etc) like they were going to do for Red Bull.

It’s either that or Porsche may have to cancel its F1 plans, though recent comments from its CEO indicate they still plan to enter F1.

The rumor remains out there that Porsche is close to signing a deal to buy into the Williams F1 team. The team currently run Mercedes engines, buy would switch to Porsche in 2026.

The sudden departure of Team Boss Jost Capito and Technical Director FX Demaison indicates something big is up, and it’s likely that if the Porsche buying 50% of Williams rumor is true, they want a say on who leads the team and who leads the design department.

Should Porsche decide to do the entire engine themselves, or badge the Audi engine, then there are other possibilities, such as being the engine supplier for the Andretti Global effort. With the Haas team moving their design team to Maranello and being tied to the hip with Ferrari, it seems unlikely Haas is an option for Porsche.

Some think Porsche could buy the Alpha Tauri team but Porsche has no desire to operate an entire team, they just want to be an engine supplier.  And besides, Red Bull has every intention of keeping AlphaTauri as their ‘B’ team – it’s not for sale – to use the team to develop young drivers and to test new engine parts before the ‘A’ team uses them. The intention was for all four cars to run the Red Bull engine (possibly badged as Ford).