Analysis | It has gone quiet: who is still waiting for Porsche?

They were beaming. On one side of the podium Christian Horner, the Red Bull Racing team boss. On the other side, Ford's CEO Jim Farley. How proud they were of the announced partnership: from 2026, the current world champion will be on the grid with the Red Bull-Ford name.

Hand overplayed

How would they have viewed this presentation in Zuffenhausen? They could have been standing there, Porsche's high bosses must have thought. After all, they were in advanced negotiations with Red Bull to give the Red Bull Powertrains the Porsche name from 2026. Until the German brand's management overplayed its hand. Red Bull had no desire at all to transfer half the control to Porsche, something the car brand had hoped/expected. End of negotiations, end of Formula 1 adventure for Porsche even before it had restarted?

Red Bull Racing was one of the first teams to launch its new car this year (sort of then). Among the teams that followed, no one mentioned Porsche. Either they are a manufacturer themselves or they are already equipped with a powerplant for 2026 and beyond. The teams that don't know what the future holds in terms of engines are in a luxury position.

Honda is keen

Honda on Monday reiterated its intention to consider a return to Formula 1 from 2026. Although not verbatim, boss Koji Watanabe's words hinted that it would rather be than not. McLaren and also Williams are now known to have held exploratory talks with Honda. Chances are Haas has also joined the Japanese. If any of these three teams join forces with Honda, they will immediately be a glorified factory team - including all the benefits that entails.

Moreover, knowing that Honda has proved capable of building an exceptionally powerful power unit, McLaren or Williams are likely to go into partnership with the Japanese rather than Porsche, which has no intention of building its own engines. A partnership with Porsche is going to be nothing more than sponsorship plus: the power unit will be bought from Mercedes or Ferrari(Audi does not need a customer team and Alpine probably already has a second team with Andretti, ed.) and it will be named Porsche.

Nice alternative

Suppose the most logical scenario comes true: McLaren and Honda team up again. Then Porsche is a nice alternative for Williams. They could continue with the Mercedes power unit and then call it Porsche. Not just like that, but for a hefty fee. It is well known throughout the paddock by now how badly (perhaps desperately) Porsche wants to return to Formula 1. When you have few choices as a brand, you undoubtedly pay top dollar to be allowed to become a sponsor. It's called market forces.

With Porsche's shaky position, it seems increasingly likely that the Germans will eventually abandon Formula 1. In fact, the company's PR department is slowly starting to anticipate this. "At the moment we are concentrating on the existing programmes, in which we have a diverse range of offerings with IMSA, WEC, Formula E and all our customer series. We are busy and happy with what we have. For everything else, we are going to see," a spokesperson recently told Motorsport.com.