At Formula E's third-ever race, at the Uruguayan luxury seaside resort of Punta del Este, in December 2014 a familiar figure was looking around the paddock, seeing what all this lack of noise was about.
He wasn't surprised that Formula E, in a naive infancy of tented pit garages and unsteady organisation, was barely more credible than national-level motorsport. In some respects, it wasn't even that. But with the backing of Jean Todt, the presence of strong teams, and a smattering of quality drivers, this special visitor had at least bothered to make the 18-hour journey to rural Uruguay.
As the now-former Red Bull motorsport advisor Helmut Marko scanned the pop-up paddock, this writer engaged him in conversation, along with the much missed DAMS founder and driving force, Jean-Paul Driot.
"This is a long way to come for a look at something new," I ventured.
"I'm on holiday," came the barked reply, said with a familiar mix of classic Marko disdain and a dismissive smirk.
Word was that Marko reported straight back to his fellow Red Bull executives, including Christian Horner, that this was not an area the company need to be involved in, and so it concentrated on rebuilding its Formula 1 superiority for the next decade and more, with Max Verstappen - then fresh out of Formula 3 and on the cusp of being an F1 driver - next in the talent development pipeline.
Now, all that has come and gone. Marko has departed, and so have many of the other old guard at Red Bull. With F1 now being more electric than it has ever been, wouldn't it make sense for an F1 operation to have a technical involvement within Formula E?
There is also a very tenuous and indirect link between Formula E and Red Bull, in the sense that Red Bull team principal Laurent Mekies' wife Maria is a strategic advisor on sustainability for Formula E and has been since 2021, working closely with vice president of sustainability, Julia Palle.
A stake in Formula E for an F1 entity such as Red Bull could make a lot of sense just now. Talks have been occurring, according to Formula E CEO Jeff Dodds, who told The Race that "Laurent, I know well" and "there are always conversations going on and we're always talking".
"Back in the early days, if you were Red Bull and you came and looked at this championship 10 years ago, maybe you wouldn't have been so excited because the cars weren't very good," added Dodds.
Now though, it is different. F1 teams have recruited several engineers from Formula E teams and even called upon drivers such as Norman Nato, Nick Cassidy, Jake Dennis and Jake Hughes to assist as electric understanding becomes increasingly important in F1.
So, the land feels more fertile than ever for an F1 team to get engaged with Formula E to share knowledge, further cross-pollinate innovation, and even potentially feed in reserve or development drivers to expand their knowledge of the demands exerted via racing techniques in the all-electric world championship.
"I think the world that we're about to enter with Gen4 is very different," said Dodds.
"You've got a car that’s going to legitimately go over 200mph in race conditions in the Gen4 car, probably 8-10 seconds a lap faster. It feels like a different proposition. So, I think if Red Bull have any interest in this championship, it will be heightened by the arrival of Gen4."
There has been no public confirmation that Red Bull or other F1 teams want to engage with teams in Formula E. Yet, there are plenty of independent operations it could easily partner with, be it officially or in the background.
The Mercedes High Performance Powertrains division has worked briefly with Mahindra in the past, and of course it was working with Mercedes EQ, too. Red Bull, meanwhile, had a long-standing partnership with Honda, which has zero interest in Formula E or all-electric motorsport in general.
Some rumours have circulated of late - not specific to Red Bull, but more that F1 may invest in a Formula E team.
The reality is that cost-cap changes for 2026 probably preclude any extra-curricular and affiliate projects for the time being. F1 teams though have proved to be adept at finding areas where they can top-up their technical scope independent from their day-to-day racing activities.
So, could Red Bull have an involvement in Formula E going forward? Of course it could, it's just a case of how it might shape what is best for it. As it stands, a technical link-up makes the most sense. But with commitments to Ford, which has no involvement in Formula E, it would likely be through an independent entity. That means Envision, Penske, Andretti or Kiro are the most likely Formula E partners if one is in the offing.
There are tenuous vague traces with each of those if you really want to go looking for them: Envision has Sebastien Buemi as a contracted driver for this season and next; Penske is run by Phil Charles, who once worked for Toro Rosso; Andretti has its star driver Dennis also working with Red Bull on the F1 simulator; and Kiro has Pepe Marti on its books. He has a Red Bull Spain deal.
While at present these go nowhere near close to being genuine and usable links, Formula E has much more attraction than it's ever had for F1 teams to at least take a look at possible tie-ins.
Present - and future? - Red Bull Formula E drivers
Although Red Bull has had no official or direct interest in Formula E, its branding has been adorned via the helmets of several drivers within it.
Formula E also had a short-lived strategic media partnership with Red Bull Media House's Brand Studio Sports, which aimed to grow awareness and reach for Formula E across Germany, Austria and Switzerland. This ceased last year.
Buemi was, of course, part of the Red Bull junior stable (as were fellow Formula E drivers Antonio Felix da Costa, Jean-Eric Vergne and Dan Ticktum), making 55 grand prix starts for Toro Rosso, and still has close links to Red Bull via a simulator testing role for the F1 team. He also carries its branding on his helmet.
Former Red Bull F1 driver Yuki Tsunoda was a guest of Formula E's at the inaugural Tokyo E-Prix in March 2024, while he was driving for the sister Racing Bulls team, and is believed to be in regular contact with Dodds and could be seen at another race this season.
Recenly-released Red Bull junior Tim Tramnitz tested the Gen4 Stellantis development car earlier this year and was initially being considered for a possible Opel seat. However, the likelihood of such a possibility is believed to have cooled in recent weeks after he signed a factory BMW deal last month.
With the opportunity for Gen4 to be much more attractive to peripheral F1 prospects, the possibility of a Red Bull-backed driver coming to Formula E in the near future, first via a test of the Gen4 car, would appear to be more likely.
from The Race https://ift.tt/1v4kzYP
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