Red Bull and Aston Martin to create ‘next generation hypercar’

2016 Australian Grand Prix

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Red Bull and Aston Martin are to collaborate on the production of a ‘next generation hypercar’ to be designed by the F1 team’s chief technical officer Adrian Newey.

The team will also carry Aston Martin logos on the nose and sidepods of its car from this weekend’s Australian Grand Prix. The brand last featured on an F1 car in 1960 during Aston Martin’s brief appearance in the sport.

Aston Martin logos will appear on the Red Bull
Newey will work with Aston Martin’s chief creative officer Marek Reichman on the design of the car which has the code name AM-RB 001.

“From the age of six 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 super car,” said Newey. “Whilst the former ambition went on to form my career to date, the latter has always bubbled away, resulting in countless sketches and doodles over the years.”

“The opportunity to now develop and realise those ideas whilst working with Marek and his colleagues from Aston Martin is tremendously exciting. It allows us to translate the technology we have developed in F1 into a new arena.”

Reichman said the new model will “combine the latest in aerodynamics from F1 and the stunning design language of an Aston Martin sports car”.

“Unconstrained by F1 regulations, we have a unique chance to create a car in its most efficient form that will represent the ultimate fusion of art and technology,” he added.

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Keith Collantine
Lifelong motor sport fan Keith set up RaceFans in 2005 - when it was originally called F1 Fanatic. Having previously worked as a motoring...

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46 comments on “Red Bull and Aston Martin to create ‘next generation hypercar’”

  1. @keithcollantine This would make a great prize for the winner of the F1 Fanatic Predictions Championship…..

    1. Seconded.

      Quite interested to see what comes out of it.

      Both the car and the potential engine supply.

  2. A genuinely exciting prospect!

    1. I thought I was the only Barrichello fan. Not only a good race driver, also a great human with a sense of humor.

  3. WilliamB (@william-brierty)
    17th March 2016, 8:22

    So what was the Vulcan? An entry level version?

    1. Track only car like Ferrari FXXK or McLaren P1 GTR. This will be a road legal Hypercar like the La Ferrari, P1, Huayra, Chiron etc. Wonder if like the last time a top F1 designer designed a hyper car it will be an all time classic (Gordon Murray with the McLaren F1)

      1. And it was pretty good.

  4. Finally! A chance to see what the man can do on a production vehicle.

    Sadly, I doubt there will be a huge fan sucking it to the floor or skirting around the side to create massive forces of ground effect. But it’s still going to be awesome, could there be a better man to designated HYPERcar?

    It’ll be insane.

  5. So with this news I can picture Red Bull getting the latest Ferrari engine…

    …Think about it.

    1. Not sure if you’re joking? Red Bull getting into road cars, competing with Ferrari, means no engine for them, ever, especially since AM have a technical partnership with Mercedes.

      It’s curious that Red Bull probably will end up with a Merc engine after all, just not in F1.

      1. Wait what? You guys must be the life of the party. How can it not be read as a joke.

        So I can simplify.
        Ferrari Head Office.
        ‘Adrian from Red Bull is going to design Fast cars for Aston Martin based on F1’
        ‘What does AM know about F1, Adrian should be design fast cars based on F1 for us. What does he/RB want?’
        ‘They want competitive engines’
        ‘If they design our road cars they can have engines’

        Simple. One line joke. I wasn’t writing a book.

    2. Motorsportfanatic
      17th March 2016, 11:36

      You’re joking right? MB own a portion of AM (and will likely acquire more) and help design/supply engines and technology/electrical systems. The DB11’s V12 was designed by AM with the help of AMG engineers and the V8’s that will be used are AMG engines that will be rebadged and retuned. Look at the DB11 and you’ll see the screens, buttons, touch pad are all MB designed and supplied. I work at the MB head office and I know that AMG are working on a V12 hybrid power unit, I wonder if it’s for the AM hypercar or a new Pagani? Maybe both?

  6. Finally the Renault name-drop makes sense. “Red Bull-Renault-Aston Martin” would have been unconscionable, but a “Red Bull-TAG-Aston Martin” sounds very sexy.

    Can’t wait to see the car. I wonder how close it gets to the virtual Red Bull x20** prototype concepts, “a car in its most efficient form that will represent the ultimate fusion of art and technology” sounds very familiar to Newey’s vision for that.

    1. TAG-ASTON MARTIN sounds better to me.

    2. Red-Aston-TAG-Bull-Martin-Heuer?

      1. Retagston Bulluertin?

      2. Aston Bull Heuer (Renault)?

  7. Oh man, this is exciting. I wonder if will be a road legal hyper car or a track only special?

    What a great call by Aston Martin though, the publicity for this will be huge!!

    1. ColdFly F1 (@)
      17th March 2016, 10:16

      I wonder if will be a road legal hyper car or a track only special

      Good point; I better wait ordering one for my daily commute ;-)

    2. The Aston Martin Racing team is active in the WEC GTE class. So it might be RBR is helping to build their new contender or that they have plans to move up to LMP class… who knows…
      Don’t we all love guessing :)

      1. Aston Martin have already tried their hand in the LMP1 category in the past – the Lola Cars B09/60 chassis (which was essentially Lola’s existing B08/60 with slightly tweaked bodywork) was reasonably competitive for a small factory effort, but Aston Martin’s own in house effort with the AMR-One was an underdeveloped, slow and unreliable dismal failure.

        The idea of an Aston Martin LMP1 project is wishful thinking – Aston Martin’s turnover has fallen slightly in recent years (dropping from around £475 million in 2010 to £468 million in 2014) and the company is losing money (£25 million in 2013 and £71 million in 2014) and is heavily mired in debt. They are barely achieving 50% of their target sales figures (their target is 7,000 per year, but their sales for 2014 – their latest figures – were below 3,700), and what money the company does have is being ploughed into research and development work and a new factory in Wales – they really don’t have the resources to spare, nor the in house expertise now that Provdrive has sold them on.

        Trying to compete against the likes of Audi, Porsche and Toyota in the WEC would be economic suicide for Aston Martin – budgets for factory teams in the WEC comfortably run into 9 figures these days, and Aston Martin would be trying to compete with an organisation (VW Group) whose daily turnover (about £463 million) virtually equals Aston Martin’s annual turnover. They would be truly and utterly crushed by the other manufacturers if they tried to compete with them – competing in the GT categories is dirt cheap by comparison, so that is probably as far as they will go.

  8. So that’s why the deal between Force India and Aston Martin didn’t go through.

    1. Sad for FI, I think they need the money more

  9. Is this the forerunner to an Aston Martin Engine in a Red Bull. Mario Illien along with RBR money and Aston Martin money and brand name?

    Let’s put that one to bed. Aston Martin is unlikely to have the money and they were linked to Merc engines last year.

    I think this is as possible as Bernie still running the show in 80 years. He has the money to cryogenically freeze himself and is sure to write the F1 contracts to ensure that if he does come back, he will be F1 supremo again. Possible, but very unlikely. Likely this is just a “You take Adrian Newey, you need to give us money” situation.

  10. Look forward to seeing what they come up with. I consider Aston Martin to have classic aesthetics, and combine that with Newey’s expertise in making the world’s fastest cars, it seems to be an absolute game changer in the making.

    1. Motorsportfanatic
      17th March 2016, 11:40

      Not to mention it will have an AMG power unit, the car should be brilliant!

    2. Yeah, combining AM and AN… Anything can happen… A mid engine turbo V6 or 12, mercedes sourced beauty maybe even hybrid with MGU-H, And then AM beauty and AN aero.

  11. I just have odd feeling that Dietrich is preparing to pull the plug. This would be the nicest way to do it.

  12. Gutted… I prefered them to support Force India, they need it more.

    1. why should they? this is business – why would you feel “gutted” for a corporation. what Force India needs is its rich owner to invest more, he can afford it. maybe the Indian government should invest too, why rely on an English car brand. Force India had nothing to give back to Aston Martin, Red Bull does – Adrian Newey.

    2. Same here!
      Not many to no new sponsors, so they all try to steal them from each other (eg Tag Heuer). Same goes for Aston Martin: an almost closed deal with Force India collapsed and now Red Bull announces a partnership with them. I can however understand working with Red Bull gives you more visibility then working with Force India. It’s all about money and return on investment and Red Bull clearly had the better cards…

      1. No, Working with RedBull gives you wi.ings…..!

  13. I honestly thought this was already known. Wasn’t it reported on last year?

    1. Fudge Ahmed (@)
      17th March 2016, 14:49

      Rumoured, heavily for about a week then disappeared with nothing until now. There’s so many of these stories over the course of the year, even a broken clock is correct twice a day.

  14. Lol I like how Reichman sticks in there ‘unconstrained by F1 regulations….’ Yeah that’s notable because you know how supercar designers usually are, right? Adrian has obviously been venting to him about the current state of F1.

  15. Adding AM’s logo on the nose of the RBR is… ridiculous. I mean, placing a car manufacturer’s logo that has absolutely nothing to do with the actual car and/or it’s not the entrant of the car in the competition either in the area where the actual manufacturer/entrant of the car is placed since the day cars were invented it’s something that shouldn’t be done. It’s simply misleading, a lie. It’s like seeing a Mercedes with BMW logos on it.

    1. Marcus Parker
      17th March 2016, 14:07

      Like infiniti?

      1. You know Renault owns 43% of Nissan and Nissan owns 15% of Renault, right? And Ghosn is the CEO for both companies. So, unlike Infiniti brand on Renault powered cars, it really makes no sense to have a Aston Martin logo on a Red Bull.

    2. Fudge Ahmed (@)
      17th March 2016, 14:50

      Are we sure that’s an official image? Could just me a mockup for the purpose of the story.

      I agree with the sentiment but it’s not a big deal.

  16. Now more information is out it is clear the marketing people have been on 100% Columbian. This will be a mid engine road legal car that can lap Silverstone faster than LMP1 or F1. This has all the hall marks of that Jaguar hyper car with turbine engines in collaboration with Williams. A watered down version of this Aston Martin will appear in the 2025 James Bond (Daniel Ratcliffe will be Bond) movie using a ZF Auto and 600bhp V8 twin Turbo engine from the latest DB9.

  17. I suspect Newey is going to find road car regulations across multiple markets a good bit more constraining than F1 regs, and the authorities won’t see workarounds as clever.

    As for lapping Silverstone faster than an F1 car – dream on baby. Even a 2015 F1 car can corner at 3.5g, and it has something like 1200 bhp/tonne. A road car can’t run slicks and it can’t have its downforce disappear when there’s a bump, it has to have clearance. A P1 maxes out about 1.2g and is a bit slower than a BTCC car round Silverstone National Circuit.

    1. @lockup, you’re right that the challenges of designing a road car are far in excess of designing a racing car, and I wouldn’t be surprised if Newey really only plays a bit part in the development of the car (basically, just enough so Aston Martin can play on the “designed by Adrian Newey” angle, but not enough to seriously distract from his role at Red Bull).

      With regards to lapping Silverstone faster than an F1 or LMP1 car – as you say, a road car is likely to have to incorporate a number of compromises – such as having to adhere to pedestrian impact regulations – that limit ultimate performance, such that a car that can achieve those sorts of performance figures would be almost unusable on a public road. Short of essentially making a modern equivalent of the Dauer 962 – which was a Porsche 962 Group C car in all but name and really only existed so Porsche could abuse the homologation regulations (it wasn’t really intended for use on the roads) – those sorts of performance targets seems rather unlikely to be achievable in practise.

      1. Yep @anon. Btw here’s a P1, LaFerrari and Porsche 918 lapping the Silverstone National Circuit: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sG13CTDMCXI

        Great cars, but note the g meter!

  18. Very exciting news but talk of lapping faster than an F1 car is frankly ridiculous. It’s weird how they even came up with that.

    1. yeah, the only way a road car would lap any track faster than a F1 car is if it was designed not by Adrian Newey, but by Doc Brown ;)

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