Red Bull Ford Powertrains Drives Innovation in Formula 1 with Siemens Xcelerator

Munich, Germany and Pune, India – Siemens Digital Industries Software, an innovation leader in automation and digitalization, announced that Red Bull Ford Powertrains, a Formula One power unit manufacturer owned by Austrian Red Bull GmbH, has leveraged the Siemens Xcelerator portfolio of industry software to rapidly develop the next generation hybrid ICE/electric driven Power Unit (PU) for the Formula 1 2026 racing season. For the 2026 season, Red Bull Ford Powertrains will build power units for both the Oracle Red Bull Racing and Scuderia Alpha Tauri F1 teams and will be one of only six manufacturers supplying power units for the F1 series.

Since the announcement of its intent in 2021, Red Bull Ford Powertrains has set an ambitious goal of developing 2026-specification sustainable high-speed power units from the ground up while meeting new specifications from F1. Like any start-up, Red Bull Ford Powertrains is breaking new ground with every component design, especially given the lack of historical data in the extremely secretive world of powertrain development.

Ben Hodgkinson, Technical Director, Red Bull Powertrains Ltd, said, “Siemens Xcelerator is the digital backbone of our design and manufacturing journey, enabling us to concurrently engineer hundreds of rapid design evolutions across a large newly formed team, ensuring each designer has visibility and knowledge of what their colleagues are working on.”

He continued, “It is especially challenging as we don’t have the luxury of historical data; every component, down to the nuts and bolts of the engine, has to be modeled from scratch. This means the design quality and ease of use from Siemens’ NX, combined with collaboration and lifecycle management with Teamcenter, is a critical factor for success.”

In addition to Siemens’ NX™ software for product engineering and Teamcenter® software for product lifecycle management (PLM), the Red Bull Ford Powertrains team leverages the simulation and test capabilities of Siemens’ Simcenter™ STAR-CCM+™ software to assist with design and validation across the project.

Stressing that the motorsport industry is aggressively pursuing a cleaner, more sustainable future that requires radical reinvention of how teams and suppliers approach all aspects of their development activities, Robert Jones, Executive Vice President, Global Sales and Customer Success, Siemens Digital Industries Software, stated, “By leveraging the benefits of digital transformation, delivered through the use of Siemens Xcelerator, we’re able to help motorsport partners in the field with their discovery, invention, and ultimately, delivery of new cleaner solutions on the track, where rubber meets the road, in timescales previously thought unattainable.”

He further said, “We are delighted to play a part in the success of the Red Bull Ford Powertrains team in achieving its goal to bring greater sustainability to motorsport and to meet the requirements for fossil-carbon-free performance, greater use of electric power, and energy recovery for the 2026 racing season.”

Image Source: Siemens AG