Mercedes team boss Toto Wolff said it was a shame the Porsche and Red Bull talks failed as he believes a Porsche Red Bull Formula 1 team would’ve been a mega entry.
Porsche and Red Bull announced earlier in September that their talks to join forces in an F1 project from 2026 onwards – when the new power unit regulations will come into effect – have ceased with no agreement reached.
Mercedes Toto Wolff regrets that outcome, claiming he was looking forward to his team, Mercedes slugging it out with a Porsche-Red Bull combo.
“It’s a shame obviously,” Wolff told the media about the Porsche’s and Red Bull’s failure to reach an agreement on an F1 spell.
“For me as a Mercedes person, it’s a shame that we can’t fight with Porsche,” he added. “Porsche/Red Bull would have been a mega entry. A great brand. And that didn’t work out for reasons that are unknown to me. It would have been really great for F1 and all of us overall if they would have joined forces for the attractiveness of the sport.”
Porsche in F1 beneficial for the sport
However, the Austrian still believes Porsche would be of added value to F1, he explained: “Every large corporation, especially auto companies, not only auto companies, because Red Bull is also pretty good at that, that not only buys a racing team and invest large amounts of money into running it, but also invests even more into activation is beneficial for F1.
“And if a brand like Porsche that is known all over the world, puts their marketing dollars into activating F1, we will all be benefiting, and I think this is the important part,” the Mercedes chief claimed.
Red Bull did not compromise on their vision for their team during their talks with Porsche, and Wolff hailed the Milton Keynes outfit’s bold strategy to build their own power unit, with a target to be self-sufficient.
“I think it’s a very bold strategy,” he revealed. “Being self-sufficient is clearly a scenario that Red Bull have always wanted to achieve, have their own power unit, not be dependent of any other OEM.
“And here we go. That’s the strategy they have deployed. And we shall see what happens in ’26/’27/’28,” the 50-year-old added.