Jan 16 (Reuters) - Red Bull have dismissed talk of their Formula One partnership with Ford being merely a branding exercise for the car giant as the team prepare to race with their own engine for the first time.
Dan Towriss, chief executive of the new General Motors-backed Cadillac team, was recently quoted in the media as saying Ford's association with former champions Red Bull was "a marketing deal with very minimal impact".
Red Bull Ford Powertrains technical director Ben Hodgkinson, speaking ahead of a team livery launch in Ford's home city Detroit, told reporters that was wrong.
"We're super-proud of our partnership with Ford and it is very much a partnership," he said.
"The vast majority of my (engine) team are from the industry... putting 700 people together in a short space of time, I couldn't find everybody I wanted, so that left a few holes," he continued.
"Ford have managed to provide some people to patch a few of those holes, which has been great... so yeah, there's a direct involvement. So it makes it absolutely fair to call it a partnership."
Red Bull are making their engine at their Milton Keynes campus in central England and have recruited heavily from rivals.
Hodgkinson said the biggest benefit, and the one Red Bull were making the most use of, was Ford's state-of-the-art manufacturing capability.
"We're able to make very complex 3D parts, parts that are so complicated you can't machine them because of their geometry," he explained.
"And we're able to do those really, really fast because Ford's expertise in the area is really quite world-class. So that's been a very big advantage."
Hodgkinson said Ford's buying power as a major manufacturer was another significant benefit when it came to sourcing components.
"If you want to try and get an electric vehicle component supply company to be interested in supplying your 50 bits, they're just not interested," he said. "There's not enough margin for them.
"If Ford go knocking on the door, people answer. So having that name associated with us has been very, very useful indeed."
Cadillac will race with Ferrari power units until at least 2029, when General Motors hopes to have its own ready.
(Reporting by Alan Baldwin in London, editing by Christian Radnedge)
