By Joey Barnes, Editor-in-Chief
In what was widely known to happen at some point, Red Bull Racing announced on Monday that Aston Martin will serve as their title sponsor for the 2018 Formula One season.
The official name at the start of next year will be set as Aston Martin Red Bull Racing.
A partnership that formed in 2016, the duo combined their innovation and technology to form the Aston Martin Valkyrie – a dynamic hypercar that will be run in 2018 before going live to customers in 2019.
The unification of the two will also expand as a technical partnership with a new Advanced Performance Center, which will create over 100 new jobs for Aston Martin personnel from design and engineering with a focus on “future sports cars.”
Christian Horner, team principal at Red Bull Racing, believes the move is simply the next step in what has been an already successful partnership.
“Our Innovation Partnership with Aston Martin has been a pioneering project from day one,” said Horner, via a team release.
“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 than 100 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.”
For Andy Palmer, President and CEO of Aston Martin, the move puts the British company one more step closer to potentially being part of Formula One as an engine program in 2021.
“Title partnership is the next logical step for our Innovation Partnership with Red Bull Racing,” said Palmer.
“We are enjoying the global brand awareness that a revitalized 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.”
