What is Aston Martin’s F1 future?
More than a sponsorship deal, this alliance could be key to Red Bull’s return to challenge the top players in Formula 1
FOR THE FIRST TIME IN MORE THAN HALF A CENTURY, THE ASTON MARTIN name will adorn a Formula 1 entry list when the 2018 edition is released. The iconic builder of James Bond’s favourite car had a five-race foray into the F1 World Championship over 1959 and ’60, and will now become title sponsor of Red Bull Racing next season.
It is the evolution of a relationship that began last year when
Aston Martin signed up as an innovation partner. As is the case with most sponsorship deals in F1 these days, the arrangement was about more than just stickers on a car. It marked the beginning of a technical partnership that has yielded the Valkyrie hypercar, a concept that had a significant contribution from Red Bull’s famed chief technical officer Adrian Newey, and significantly benefited from both Aston Martin’s and Red Bull’s input.
“I’ve known Christian [Horner, Red Bull team boss] and [Adrian] an awful long time,”says Aston Martin CEO Andy Palmer, who brokered Red Bull’s Infiniti deal when in his previous job as chairman of Nissan’s‘luxury’brand.“what has been born out of that relationship is Valkyrie. The work that has been done through the F1 partnership with Red Bull has helped Aston as a brand. It has created an ability for us to create unique experiences for our customers and, to some extent, some publicity.
“What we discovered in particular through the relationship is that both sets of engineers have the ability to push each other to things they haven’t been able to do before. For example, a road-car engineer would say that’s not possible because of this, this and this. The race engineer would say we did that at race X. Likewise, in the other direction, particularly on the styling side, the design side, the F1 team is learning from us as well. Putting the two together is great. It just feels right to go to the next level.”
Last Monday, Red Bull and Aston Martin announced that next step. Visually, that will involve the car maker’s brand featuring “prominently”across the team, which is to be rebranded Aston Martin Red Bull Racing. But it is much more than that under the skin, since the two brands are set for a greater sharing of technology and working practices going in both directions.
As part of the arrangement, a new Advanced Performance
Centre has been constructed on Red Bull’s Milton Keynes campus,
creating more than 100 jobs and providing a base from which to develop Red Bull’s and Aston Martin’s next hypercar project while allowing for closer collaboration between the two brands.
“The team will become Aston Martin Red Bull Racing, and there will be an increased branding presence on all the team’s assets, including the cars and drivers,”says Horner.“the roots of the partnership go much deeper. There is a genuine crossover of F1 and Red Bull DNA into the next range of Aston Martin product.”
Given the success of their maiden project – the Valkyrie, which is limited to just 175 and sold out on launch – there’s no reason to suggest stage two will not follow suit. But there is a sense that this title sponsorship is just a stepping stone to something much bigger. Aston Martin is evaluating the possibility of entering F1 as an engine manufacturer. And the strengthening of its relationship with Red Bull is a sign of that intent.
Its entry depends on the shape of the engine formula that will be introduced from 2021. If the price is right, Aston Martin wants in.
“Title partnership is the next logical step for our innovation partnership with Red Bull,”says Palmer.“we are enjoying the global brand awareness that a revitalised F1 provides. The power-unit discussions 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.”
Engine design is one of Aston Martin’s strengths. Its history proves that. Red Bull needs a works engine deal. It failed to secure Mercedes or Ferrari power at the last attempt and appears at the end of its tether in its relationship with Renault. That leaves only struggling Honda. The Japanese manufacturer may improve, now out of the limelight and supplying Toro Rosso rather than Mclaren, but recent form does not generate much hope. Taking an Aston Martin engine, then, makes sense for Red Bull.
“It’s something we’re absolutely open to,”says Horner.“first things first, we need to see what the regulations are and whether it is viable for a manufacturer like Aston to be able to buddy up with another third party in a bid to produce a competitive engine.”
He adds that a works partnership is not imperative, but the team’s main aim is“we want to get ourselves into a competitive position so we can compete shoulder to shoulder in all departments”. It is why Red Bull is pushing so hard for costs to be pushed down, not because it wants to produce its own engine – since that is not on its agenda – but to make it financially viable for an engine manufacturer such as Aston Martin to produce an independent and competitive power unit. Palmer adds that“a lot of the discussion on engines”with Horner was “born out of his own frustration about being able to find a reliable and powerful engine for the future”.
Ever since Aston Martin began talks to bring the brand back to F1 in 2015, it was clear that it did not have huge funds to invest. The company made an annual loss for each of the past six years, but Palmer has been working hard to turn the company around, revamping its product range and refinancing it. This year Aston Martin posted a first-quarter profit for the first time in a decade. The new DB11 helped the company double its revenues in the first half of the year, reaching £410.4 million.
But a return to F1 as an engine supplier relies on F1 bosses agreeing to simplify engines and limit development time to make it financially viable. Aston representatives have attended a series of meetings to discuss the new engine formula as the company weighs its options and contributes ideas to the discussion.
“All of us agree that the theatre of F1 needs to return, the drivers need to be the stars, the sound needs to come back and you have to be able to put on a show,” says Palmer.“we can all agree that’s not exactly where we are. But when you get down to the details, that’s where it starts to become a bit more difficult. In each instance, what you’re asking is the current incumbents to give up something for the improvement of F1.
“We have made a formal submission with our opinion and we’re hopeful the regulators, the FIA in this case, will rule on a muchsimplified engine, which most importantly has to limit the number of dynamometer hours and has to limit the development cost.
“Our submission talks a lot about keeping the current lap times in place, but at the same time improving the sound of the engine. If you bring the cost down, you can increase the number of engines that you can supply so you don’t have this ridiculous situation of grid penalties and obtuse rules that nobody really understands.”
Horner echoes those thoughts:“where engines currently are today, the research and development cost, the piece price, the
“The theatre of F1 needs to return, the drivers need to be the stars”
supply costs, are just out of kilter of where they should be. It’s across the board – it’s not just the component cost, it’s the development and dyno time that is permitted. Restrictions like we see with windtunnels and CFD need to be in place to allow an independent to supply a competitive engine.“
Palmer says he hopes a decision will be taken on the new engine formula before the end of this year.“that would give us a short time to make the decision to go or not go. And then the development time on an engine is normally quite long, particularly if you’re starting from scratch, therefore normally you’re doing single-cylinder work,”he says.
Palmer feels the fact that Aston already has a presence in F1 with Red Bull will be a benefit as it bids to get its voice heard in the discussions.“everyone can agree that it’s important Red Bull stays in the sport. If I’m speaking in one voice with Christian, then there is a greater intensity for the sport to listen,”he says.
Aston Martin has worked closely with Cosworth on Valkyrie. The hypercar’s hardware package consists of a Cosworth-designed V12 power unit, supplemented by an F1-inspired ERS device, driving a Ricardo-designed seven-speed transmission. Both Cosworth and Ricardo, along with Ilmor, have been present at the F1 engine meetings. Would Aston be prepared to team up with one of those companies to produce an independent engine – Ilmor has ruled out supplying an engine under its own name, saying it would only be viable with a partner – or would it prefer to go on its own?
“Both options are open,”says Palmer.“it genuinely depends on the bill at the end of it. Aston, in general, works with specialist engine companies like Cosworth, Ricardo, Ilmor and AVL. Even with our road-car engines, we use those specialists. It would be reasonable and possible that Aston would join up with the likes of Cosworth to put together a proposal. Nothing is decided yet. I have had discussions with all the aforementioned groups.
Our closest relationship right now is with Cosworth because of the arrangement with the Valkyrie engine.”
F1 bosses had hoped to attract more engine manufacturers to F1 with the last engine formula, but only Honda took up the offer and its results have been poor. After three seasons, it remains well off the performance and reliability of its three rivals. Before that, Cosworth – one of the most successful engine manufacturers to race in F1 – returned in 2010 after a three-year absence, supplying Williams, Lotus, Virgin and HRT. But it too struggled. Palmer admits F1 will be a challenge as an engine supplier, but he fully backs his company’s ability to deliver a competitive engine.
“It’s clearly not easy,”he says.“you can’t arrogantly say we have the capability. There are risks involved. Clearly we’re going to do everything we can to mitigate those risks. Our whole 104-year history is embedded in powerful sportscars and therefore sportscar engines, like Ferrari. We have passionate people, geographically we’re right in the middle of the Formula 1 triangle and we have people that have worked at Aston and in F1. We have a strong partnership with Red Bull.
“I’m trying to make sure we shorten those odds to making a great engine. Everyone can see it’s not easy. Even some of the big boys, with big budgets like Honda and Renault, have struggled in the past. I think what that tells you is that making a great engine is not all about huge budgets. It’s also about passion and tenacity, it’s about the speed of feedback, and it’s about understanding the sport.”
Ultimately, Aston Martin wants to beat sportscar rivals such as Mclaren and Ferrari off-track and it feels success on-track, as an engine supplier with Red Bull, can help it do just that.
“The more Astonness that goes into the race car, the more we look like a genuine player within the F1 grid,”says Palmer.“there is contribution going into the way Red Bull do their work, they learn from us, but if we can turn that into something very tangible, like an engine, I think that’s very good.
“Red Bull do what they do very well. And I wouldn’t want to interfere with that as a vehicle manufacturer in any way, shape or form. But if we can help, and we do that through something that we’re very good at, which is obviously engine design, that may work. But it will only work if we tone down the arms war that you have at the moment.
“I don’t think we want to own the team itself. We could legitimately say that we’re competing in Formula 1 if we’re providing an engine to the likes of
Red Bull. We can point to the analogy of Ferrari and Mclaren. What
I’m trying to do is to demonstrate that we have credibility in the mid-engined sportscar area.
“Valkyrie is mid-engined, it’s the pinnacle of technology, and hopefully it will be the defining car of the decade. You then allow that to trickle down into a vehicle, an Aston Martin that competes directly with a 488. For buyers of that car to know that what you’re buying is a little bit of Valkyrie and a little bit of Formula 1. A demonstration of that is how you compete in F1. It’s why this relationship is so compelling.”
Aston Martin’s first foray into F1 may not have been memorable. But if F1 bosses succeed in bringing the costs down with the new engine formula, Aston’s second attempt could be very different while in turn providing the catalyst for a Red Bull revival.
“Our 104-year history is embedded in powerful sportscars, like Ferrari”