Aston Martin is reportedly preparing to extend their partnership with Red Bull Racing in Formula 1 and will become the team’s title sponsor in 2018.
The two brands began their association at the start of 2016. The partnership has had commercial as well as technical purposes so far, with Red Bull Advanced Technologies assisting in the development of Aston’s £2.5 million Valkyrie hypercar.
Sources close to both parties suggest that a title sponsorship tie-up for next season will be announced in the coming weeks. Neither Red Bull nor Aston is willing to officially confirm an extension of their current partnership as yet.
“You can speculate all you like but I’m not going to confirm anything,” Red Bull team boss Christian Horner stated.
“We’ve got a great relationship with Aston, obviously working on and developing the Valkyrie hypercar for them.
“They’re doing a great job, the product is great, and they’ve got a lot of great stuff in the pipeline. There will be news to follow in weeks to come.”
Red Bull has been without a title sponsor since their deal with car-maker Infiniti ended in 2015. This deal was brokered by Andy Palmer – now CEO at Aston Martin.
“It’s fair to say that one of the reasons I’m here [in Singapore] today is to discuss what next season looks like,” Palmer stated when speaking with Motorsport.com. “And within that context, do we or don’t we provide an independent engine in 2021? And then join the dots.
“We like the sport and we are a company that aspires to be as valuable as Ferrari. That doesn’t mean that we have to copy Ferrari in every way, shape and form. We’re stronger in WEC, but having a presence in F1 is interesting.”
With power unit politics dominating headlines, it has been hinted recently that Aston Martin could power Red Bull in the future.
With reports emerging that Renault would be unwilling to supply Red Bull with power units post-2018, they could be left with no other option than to adopt Honda-power for ’19 and beyond.
Aston Martin could potentially offer Red Bull an alternative to Honda in the future but this is likely to be dependent on the cost of F1’s next generation of engines.
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