Aston Martin will become Red Bull’s Formula One title partner next season in a move that will raise the British marque’s track profile against commercial sportscar rivals Ferrari and McLaren.
The former world champions will be known officially as Aston Martin Red Bull Racing.
“Title partnership is the next logical step for our innovation partnership with Red Bull Racing,” Aston Martin president and chief executive Andy Palmer said in a statement on Monday. “We are enjoying the global brand awareness that a revitalised Formula One provides.”
Red Bull and Aston Martin, the glamorous 104-year-old marque whose road cars have become associated with fictional British secret agent James Bond, have an existing technical relationship.
Red Bull designer Adrian Newey, whose cars won four successive drivers’ and constructors’ titles between 2010-13, has been heavily involved in Aston Martin’s Valkyrie “hypercar” which will be delivered to customers in 2019.
The team, whose cars currently carry some Aston Martin branding, are powered by Renault engines branded as Tag Heuer. Australian Daniel Ricciardo and Dutch teenager Max Verstappen are the current drivers.
The sport’s engine regulations are changing after 2020, with calls for a simpler and cheaper power unit than the current 1.6 litre V6 turbo hybrid and that could be of interest to Aston Martin.
“We are not about to enter an engine war with no restrictions in cost or dynamometer (testing) hours but we believe that if the FIA can create the right environment we would be interested in getting involved,” Palmer said.
Both parties are to set up a new advanced performance centre at the team’s Milton Keynes factory in central England, working on road car and Formula One technology.
Red Bull said 110 new jobs would be created, with the centre housing Aston Martin design and engineering staff working on future sports cars from the two companies.
The team’s previous title partner from 2013 to 2015 was Nissan-owned luxury car brand Infiniti, now with Renault.
Aston Martin is owned mainly by Kuwaiti and Italian investors, with Mercedes-Benz owner Daimler holding a five percent stake, and is seeking to boost its share of U.S. markets.
It reported its first half-yearly profit in almost a decade last month and expects full-year volumes to rise by around a third to roughly 5,000 cars.
Official Statement
Eighteen months after launching an Innovation Partnership that led to the redefinition of automotive possibility with the game-changing Aston Martin Valkyrie hypercar, Red Bull Racing is set to similarly redefine the Formula One grid with the announcement that the iconic sports car brand Aston Martin is to become its title partner from 2018 onwards, with the team competing as ‘Aston Martin Red Bull Racing’.
The strengthened ties between the two brands is far more than a skin-deep exercise, with the expanded technical partnership taking concrete form in the shape of a new Advanced Performance Centre being established at Red Bull Racing’s campus later this year. The new Centre will create 110 new jobs housing Aston Martin’s design and engineering personnel responsible for future sports cars from the two companies.
The new centre will allow a closer working relationship between the two leading brands in their respective fields which will see the adoption of both F1 and road car technology.
Christian Horner, Team Principal of Red Bull Racing said: “Our Innovation Partnership with Aston Martin has been a pioneering project from day one. Having conceived and created the remarkably successful Aston Martin Valkyrie together in 2016, we extended our relationship this year and are now delighted to further strengthen the partnership and see the team competing as Aston Martin Red Bull Racing in 2018. In addition, more than100 Aston Martin staff will service the new Advanced Performance Centre on our campus here in Milton Keynes and it will allow us to collaborate further with Aston Martin on special, equally innovative, new projects.”
Aston Martin President and CEO, Andy Palmer, added: “Title partnership is the next logical step for our Innovation Partnership with Red Bull Racing. We are enjoying the global brand awareness that a revitalised Formula One provides. The power unit discussions (in Formula One) are of interest to us, but only if the circumstances are right. We are not about to enter an engine war with no restrictions in cost or dynamometer hours but we believe that if the FIA can create the right environment we would be interested in getting involved.”
The relationship between Aston Martin and Red Bull began in 2016 after the two companies combined cutting edge F1 technology and Aston Martin’s signature sports car design to produce a ground breaking hypercar. The Aston Martin Valkyrie is set to be the first in a line of new products to be borne of this Innovation Partnership and will make its first run in 2018 before being delivered to customers in 2019.
Aston Martin will feature prominently across the Aston Martin Red Bull Racing team from the start of the 2018 season.
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