Hot on the heels of news Aston Martin is considering making a return to Formula One as a technology partner of Red Bull Racing, a role currently fulfilled by Infiniti, more rumors emerging from the U.K. suggest Red Bull design ace Adrian Newey’s long-postulated road car project could end up being a new supercar bearing the Aston Martin name.
Over the weekend, it emerged that Red Bull is looking to drop Infiniti as a technology and brand partner in favor of Aston Martin, in return for the British sports car marque getting Mercedes-Benz to supply its hugely successful F1 engines to Red Bull. Recall that Mercedes owns 5 percent of Aston Martin and has close links with CEO Andy Palmer.
And now Autocar reports that Red Bull and Aston Martin may also end up being linked in a road car project. According to the British publication’s sources, the Red Bull/Aston Martin road car project could still go ahead even without an F1 deal, as the road car is said to involve Red Bull Technologies, a separate unit to the Red Bull Racing F1 team.
Heading the project is said to be Newey, the aerodynamics specialist who led the design of Red Bull’s four championship-winning F1 cars (2010-2013). He recently stepped back from his F1 design duties, with many suggesting that this was to free up time to work on a road car project.
Speaking at the recent Goodwood Festival of Speed, Red Bull Racing team principal Christian Horner hinted strongly that Newey was working on a road car project and that it was inevitable Red Bull would eventually make a road car.
“It’s something that Adrian is keen to do as a legacy project,” Horner told Autocar. “At the moment our focus is on being a Formula One constructor, but as we see more technology cross over with the road car market, it’s something that will organically grow.”
Pictured above is Aston Martin’s most recent supercar, a track-only model dubbed the Vulcan that’s being built in a limited run of just 24 cars. Newey is likely to come up with a very different design, possibly something along the lines of his Red Bull X2014 designed for Gran Turismo 6.
Back in the 1980s, Gordon Murray, working for the McLaren F1 team at the time, came up with the F1 road car, one of the greatest supercars of all time. Is history about to be repeated? We sure hope so. Stay tuned for an update.
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