M icrons matter at more than 200 miles per hour. To create cars and engines worthy of the podium, everything has to be perfect. Red Bull Ford Powertrains first took to the track in Formula 1’ s 2026 season, coinciding with a new set of regulations that overhauled power units and made cars more agile.
Mike Hughes, Head of QA and Manufacturing Engineering at Oracle Red Bull Racing, explains:“ Fundamentally, it ' s an engineering challenge to extract maximum performance from a power unit constrained by the regulations: a 1.6-litre hybrid capacity, running on a specified fuel. The more power we can extract, the more competitive we are. Every fraction counts.”
Creating the car Mike has worked with the team for two decades, and regulations are not the only things that have evolved.“ What has changed is the relentless need for speed – and I don ' t just mean on track,” he explains.
“ The sooner you can finalise a component design, the sooner you can develop next season ' s car. The sooner you can start testing, the sooner you can optimise. And the sooner you can optimise, the sooner you can race competitively.
“ If that process isn ' t fast enough, or if we can ' t be certain we ' ve got it right, we can ' t win. Partners like Hexagon make the difference. manufacturingdigital. com 79