Christian Horner, the boss of the Red Bull team, and Jim Farley, the CEO of Ford, are taking steps to repair their strained relationship.
Earlier this year, amidst a series of scandals involving Horner, the team, and the energy drink company, Farley had penned a letter to Red Bull Racing expressing his concerns.
"As we have previously stated, and without receiving a satisfactory response, the values Ford is committed to are non-negotiable," Farley wrote back in late February.
"We are also frustrated by the lack of full transparency around this issue from us, your business partners, and look forward to a full report of all findings."
Red Bull and Ford are working together on a new Formula 1 engine project, Red Bull Powertrains, which is set to power both of Red Bull's F1 teams from 2026.
As reported by De Telegraaf, since Farley's letter, there had been no communication between Horner and Farley, posing a potential challenge for the Red Bull-Ford partnership.
However, this situation changed when Farley attended the Italian Grand Prix at Monza. The Dutch newspaper revealed that the 62-year-old Ford CEO and Horner held a meeting on Saturday. Additionally, on Sunday, Red Bull's majority shareholder Chalerm Yoovidhya and Red Bull co-CEO Oliver Mintzlaff also met at Monza as part of efforts to calm the lingering tensions from the leadership dispute.
"It has to be said quite clearly that all this bickering in the team over the last six months has obviously left its mark," Gerhard Berger, the first-ever Red Bull-backed athlete, told Kronen Zeitung at Monza.
"The fire alarms must be going off now," he added.
A Red Bull spokesperson confirmed that Farley and Horner had a comprehensive discussion on Saturday.
"The meeting went well," he stated.
"They talked for about an hour about the plans for next year and for 2026."
Nevertheless, former F1 driver Ralf Schumacher is sceptical that Red Bull will now manage to implement the necessary changes to address the declining performance of their 2024 car.
"For me, the situation is set for the time being," he told Sky Deutschland.
"With all this uncertainty, more heads will roll and many people will be unhappy. They are under pressure from all sides." body check tags ::
