After months of rumours, it’s finally been confirmed: Porsche is joining Formula 1, with the famous performance car brand revealing plans to take a 50% stake in Red Bull, one of the sport’s top teams.
Volkswagen Group has long been open about the fact they want to join F1 through two of their best-known brands, Audi and Porsche – but it hasn’t been clear in what form these entries would look like.
Now, according to documents filed with the Moroccan national competition regulator (of all places), Porsche wants to acquire a 50% stake in Red Bull Racing – a landmark move.
Why Morocco? Porsche and Red Bull had to file with the antitrust authorities of up to 20 countries, including those outside the European Union, including Morocco.
The official announcement was supposed to go out during the Austrian Grand Prix – but because the FIA World Motor Sport Council did not approve the 2026 engine regulations before the 29th of June as planned, it delayed Porsche’s official confirmation, Germany’s Motorsport-Total reports.
Anyway, what this means is that Porsche is officially joining the sport, and will collaborate with Red Bull on a new power unit for 2026. While Red Bull’s sister team AlphaTauri is not mentioned in the document, it’s a foregone conclusion that AlphaTauri would also be running Porsche power units in 2026 as part of the deal.
What about Audi?
While the Porsche deal seems more concrete, the Audi deal seems less settled. Previously, Audi was linked with a deal with McLaren, but now it seems that Sauber (who currently competes under the Alfa Romeo name for branding purposes) is the likely candidate.
According to Autosport, Audi is still negotiating with Sauber owner Finn Rausing about the acquisition of 75% of the team’s shares.
The Audi deal, unlike the Porsche deal, will likely see Audi become a fully-fledged factory team – or, potentially, they go the Alfa Romeo route and get their name on Sauber’s car (although this seems less likely).
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