Aston Martin partners with Red Bull and Adrian Newey
In the absence of an engine agreement, Aston Martin and Red Bull have ultimately decided to partner for the creation of a supercar designed by Adrian Newey. This will result in the appearance of the British brand's logo on the F1 cars.
As part of the Silverstone Grand Prix last summer, a rumor had emerged about a partnership between Red Bull and Aston Martin, which would have rebranded a Mercedes engine. However, Mercedes was quick to make it clear that this was out of the question, especially in light of the team’s numerous criticisms of its Renault engine. Ultimately, the compromise to satisfy everyone was to rebrand the Renault engine with the luxury watch brand Tag Heuer, departing from McLaren.
Long negotiations then began between Aston Martin and Sahara Force India about a partnership, as the Silverstone team is already equipped with a Mercedes engine. The project was for the spirits group Diageo to become the owner of the team in exchange for Vijay Mallya’s financial troubles, while the team would take on the name of the famous car brand. However, this project never materialized either, and Sahara Force India had to admit during the winter that it would not happen.
Today, Red Bull announced a partnership with Aston Martin. This project primarily involves the collaboration of its Advanced Technologies department, led by Adrian Newey. The goal is for both parties to team up for the development of Aston Martin’s new supercar, the AM-RB 001, allowing the designer with ten world championship titles to expand his field of activity: « Since I was six years old, I have had two goals in life: to be involved in the design of racing cars and to be involved in the design of a supercar. While the first has allowed me to build my career up to now, the second has yet to be realized, amounting to numerous sketches over the years. The opportunity to develop and implement these ideas while working with Marek and his colleagues from Aston Martin is extremely exciting. This will allow us to transfer the technology developed in F1 to a new sector. »
This is not the first time an F1 team has partnered with a manufacturer to create a supercar. In the past, Williams significantly contributed to the development of Jaguar’s C-X75, before the project was abandoned. This does not prevent the two partners from extending their collaboration to include involvement in Formula E starting next season.
In order to further increase the visibility of such an agreement, it was also decided to extend it to Formula 1. This will allow the Aston Martin logo to be present on the front nose and engine cover of Daniel Ricciardo’s and Daniil Kvyat’s cars. Nevertheless, this association will be purely promotional as the manufacturer will not be involved in the technical development of the car, as explained by Christian Horner: « Through this partnership, Aston Martin’s legendary logo will return to Grand Prix racing for the first time since 1960, and Red Bull Advanced Technologies, led by Adrian, will use the DNA of Formula One to produce the most extreme road cars. »
This allows Red Bull to satisfy one of its key employees while establishing a new premium brand, which can further develop its own reputation. The art of pleasing everyone…
With the participation of www.racingbusiness.fr
