Ford CEO Jim Farley and Red Bull Racing CEO Laurent Mekies joined Bloomberg's Matt Miller from the Detroit Auto Show. They discuss their partnership, the evolution in Formula 1 technology, and what Trump-era policies mean for the future of auto manufacturing.
Ford Motor Co.’s top executive said there’s urgent need to update the North American trade agreement critical to the region’s automotive industry, a sharp contrast to comments by President Donald Trump this week expressing indifference toward brokering a new deal.
“We built our entire vehicle business as an industry between Canada, Mexic...
Questions asked in this interview
3
0:00Why do you, when you're talking to Bill Ford, when you're talking to the shareholders, how do you justify this spend and this drive to go racing?
5:04What can you bring back that puts value into those price increases?
8:40Have you made any progress in getting maybe carve outs?
You know, at first you're right. It's the biggest regulation transphobia in the history of Rhode Island, at least in the modern history of Formula One. And it's also on that very same year that we chose the, let me say, crazy challenge to go and build our own polling units. And if you do that, you want to partner with the best. And we are in a position where we have managed to strike this strategic tactical partnership with Ford in this crazy adventure of building from absolutely zero our employee needs. And we go together in this in these new regulations. Jim, for you, this must be exciting because you've built, honestly, a new legacy for Ford in terms of racing. I mean, on the one hand, you've got the new industrialized America here. On the other hand, you're going back to Lamar with a hypercar. In a couple of years, you're essentially doing DMV 2.0, right? This is like the Cosworth of old. Why do you, when you're talking to Bill Ford, when you're talking to the shareholders, how do you justify this spend and this drive to go racing?
Well, a couple of things. First of all, the tech transfer of this sport, the Laurent leads this team that Laurent leads, you know, leader in aerodynamics, predictive failure components and software, software control, the hybrid system, high discharge batteries. These are all core capabilities that we need for the next 5 to 10 years as a company. So the tech transfer is very relevant for us, like maybe for valves or overhead cams were in the sixties, you know. But the tech transfer is totally different today. Formula One is a complete digital sport, and that's where we're going as a company, number one. Number two is, you know, racing, especially in the for a world gives us credibility for customers that the product they buy has real capability that's been tested in a way that a brand who doesn't race can't say. And that's what portion Ferrari knew for a long time, especially for us in the offroad world. This is really important. Racing is a fundamental part of our company's business because to beat all the great offroad brands and to establish ourselves now we're to ex Jeep sales in the US to keep that going and keep growing the offroad brand, Off-Road Racing in Dakar. Baja is where our customers will say, hey, that Ford has the real deal. It's the real deal. It's not a poseur product. So racing is integral into our credibility as a company, and you've obviously got a deep, rich history there and you're bringing your software and battery technology, those capabilities to Red Bull Racing.
But for you, Laurent, this is a whole new thing, right? Building the engine. I know you're getting a lot of help from Ford. What are they helping you with on the fuel side? Looks like they've been helping us on many different topics. And that list of topics is expanding every day. But let me give you a couple of practical examples. GM's team have unique advanced manufacturing capabilities that we use to produce some of the most critical parts of our engine. And not only are they able to manufacture these parts for us, but also they do it in less time than we would do otherwise. And that gives us a crucial, you know, all businesses is a time to market business. We call it the time to raise business. And when we're able to manufacture complex components in a short amount of time at this incredible level of quality that we are looking for, that's a key competitive advantage, especially since I think you've said you gave up some time focused on last year's car. So you're in a hurry to make sure that this year, this new car, when Max gets in it in Bahrain, right, that it's a winner and not a learning moment. How do you make sure that you're winning straight out of the gate?
You know, you will have to bear with us a little bit. The scale of the challenge is monumental. We have started to design and build these engines in what was a field. You know, we've made the factory, we've built the dyno. We've put together an unbelievable group of people and group of partners such as Jim and his team. And it will be foolish and naive to think that from the first day you are going to be at the same level that the people that have been doing it for 90 years. So bear with us. It will give us a few sleepless nights. It will give us a few headaches. We feel we have the right people, the right tools, the right spirit across what Red Bull means and what Ford means will eventually come out on top. But the first few months will certainly be.
Jim, what can you bring back from this laboratory, if you will, to the Ford customer here in America? Because yesterday we saw figures from the Bureau of Labor Statistics that showed prices for the average passenger car, not Ford, but across the industry are at more than $500. Prices for the average truck across the industry are up more than $1,000. What can you bring back that puts value into those price increases?
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Farley, J. (2026, January 15). Ford's Jim Farley, Red Bull Racing's Laurent Mekies on F1 Partnership (FULL) [Interview transcript]. Bloomberg Podcasts. CEOInterviews.AI. https://ceointerviews.ai/interview/640592/
MLA
James Farley. "Ford's Jim Farley, Red Bull Racing's Laurent Mekies on F1 Partnership (FULL)." Bloomberg Podcasts, 15 Jan. 2026. Transcript, CEOInterviews.AI, https://ceointerviews.ai/interview/640592/.
BibTeX
@misc{farley2026_640592,
author = {James Farley},
title = {Ford's Jim Farley, Red Bull Racing's Laurent Mekies on F1 Partnership (FULL)},
howpublished = {Interview transcript, Bloomberg Podcasts. CEOInterviews.AI},
year = {2026},
month = {jan},
url = {https://ceointerviews.ai/interview/640592/},
note = {Speaker-attributed transcript with timestamps}
}
