Yahoo Finance Is Aston Martin Heading To F1 With Red Bull Racing?
It seems that the good guys and gals in Gaydon are eager to expand their racing presence. There's a rumor floating around right now that would have Aston Martin making its return to the world of Formula One, and it's all related to the automaker's current partnership with Mercedes-Benz.
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The two automakers don't see each other as competitors in the consumer market, but this would certainly see the pair putting its engine technology to work on rival racing teams.
Aston Martin hasn't competed in F1 since the 1959 and 1960 seasons. In fact, those were the only two seasons that Aston Martin attempted to campaign a car in the sport. This was with the rather gorgeous DBR4, which didn't quite perform as well as it looked. Over those two seasons, the car ran just five races and never managed a finish higher than sixth. The car wound up retiring more often than it wound up seeing the checkered flag.
Today is a new era though, and, according to Autocar, Aston Martin would utilize its aforementioned partnership in order to provide a team with the F1 engine engineered by Mercedes-Benz. This is a very good thing, as this is a very good engine. It seems that Red Bull Racing would be the one to benefit from the engine tech. Red Bull Racing is currently cozied up with Infiniti and Renault, but that deal is set to expire towards the end of 2016.
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Who helped put that deal together? Andy Palmer and Simon Sproule.
Where do Andy Palmer and Simon Sproule work now? Aston Martin.
This move would get a Mercedes engine into more cars. It would remove competitive branding from Infiniti, which actually does compete with a few models in the Mercedes-Benz lineup. Additionally, it would provide the German automaker's new friends at Aston Martin with a greater footprint in the motorsports universe... all while the actual heart under the skin beats to the tune of a tri-star-emblazoned engine.
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