Aston Martin - Red Bull Racing - Aston Martin in F1 talks with Red Bull over Mercedes engine deal - F1 news - AUTOSPORT.com Aston Martin in F1 talks with Red Bull over Mercedes engine deal By Jim Holder and Glenn Freeman Saturday, July 4th 2015, 19:59 GMT Aston Martin is negotiating a shock return to Formula 1 in a tie-up with Red Bull for next season that would bring the team Mercedes engines. In a deal that is currently still under negotiation, Aston Martin would become brand partner with four-time world champion team Red Bull Racing in exchange for brokering a deal for it to run the dominant Mercedes F1 engine. Mercedes owns five per cent of Aston Martin, which competed in F1 for just two seasons, in 1959 and 1960 (pictured below), with very limited success. Under the deal Mercedes would be recognised as the official engine supplier of Red Bull, but Aston Martin would become a partner and have branding on the cars. The deal is said to have the blessing of Mercedes, which is eager to run more customer teams to offset the costs of its investment in F1 and does not consider Aston Martin to be a competitor for road car sales. The talks are understood to have been instigated by Aston Martin boss Andy Palmer and its director of marketing and communications Simon Sproule, both of whom were credited for Infiniti's long-term sponsorship deal with Red Bull when they worked for Nissan. Infiniti is the upmarket brand of Nissan, which is in an alliance with Renault. When contacted by AUTOSPORT's sister title Autocar, Aston Martin refused to comment. Red Bull has a contract to compete with Renault engines until the end of 2016, but the championship-winning relationship has soured over the past 18 months as the French firm has struggled to match the pace of Mercedes and Ferrari. Senior figures at Red Bull have regularly criticised Renault in public this season, and on Thursday team and engine chiefs held a meeting at the team's Milton Keynes base. Red Bull has repeatedly threatened to pull out of F1 if it is unable to get a competitive engine in the near future. Its owner Dietrich Mateschitz said last month Renault had "destroyed our enjoyment and motivation", and he also ruled out becoming a customer to another engine supplier.
Funny you should say that - the potential take-over of Lotus by Renault would mean Red Bull are no longer their works team so they need another solution - but Mercedes ! Its a better engine (currently) but you'd still not be THE works team
Under the current format, an engine is designed for the works car, you are not the works car, you are fouled. If its still the Merc PU, same situation, different lump.
Work team or not, a Mercedes customer engine would a lot better than a Renault factory one! Just look at Williams with a Mercedes customer engine ; it's ahead of even Ferrari this weekend.
Guess Redbull aren't willing to wait with crossed fingers that Renault will build a killer engine next season. Would be shockingly funny if that scenario happened.
Mercedes power has not helped Lotus as much as many people were expecting, will it really put the cans back into contention for the championship? What happens to the Toro Rosso team, will they continue with Renault power?
Soda can man doesn't want this deal he wants the auto union to to make red bull the factory f1 team . This is to try to show that there are other people willing to supply support to red bull f1 team . Once again you have to love f1 for all the back stabbing in double-dealing. Now way Benz supply red bull with the good stuff . Soda can man is very very very smart you don't go from sell toothpaste and toothbrushes to being worth several billion dollars not being anything but brilliant
Mercedes-Benz has already rubbished the story. Seems too convoluted to be possible but these days, nothing in F-1 should be a surprise. How would Aston Martin be served by putting money into an F-1 team that would utilize Mercedes-Benz engines? The Red Bull/Aston Martin Mercedes-Benz team just doesn't roll off the tongue and would only cause confusion, especially in the media room. Further, the old guard Aston Martin crowd (those for whom Aston Martin's racing participation is an "embarrassment") would have their noses seriously out of joint. The market will speak here. BHW
One shouldn't forget that Mercedes and Aston Martin are partners. A contract was signed recently for Mercedes to provide more technology to AM. Future Aston Martin road cars will receive Mercedes engines and components in future. There is talk of the next Aston and the next AMG GT sharing the same chassis too. Since they had their fingers badly burnt trying to do LMP alone, for Aston Martin, a participation in F1 under these conditions could make sense. The team could be called Red Bull Aston Martin. Adopting a rebadged Mercedes engine would give them a foot up too: it's a proven quantity, unlike the Renault ...
Red Bull is more likely to get with Honda. Honda has already inferred they are preparing for another customer team which they really need for data and development purposes.
For Red Bull to choose Honda as engine supplier after being disappointed with Renault would be like jumping out of the frying pan into the fire !! I read, not so long ago, that Honda had no intention to provide another team in the near future. I also suspect that McLaren anticipated that and obtained an exclusive contract with them too.
I could be wrong, but I would be very surprised indeed if Honda, given the enormous costs of developing an F1 engine, would have agreed to an exclusive with McLaren.
"not in the near future" is the clue here, I think. McLaren benefiting from a period of exclusivity once the Honda power unit has reached its optimum development may have been the intention. McLaren and Honda may even have some timeline in their partnership, but the development is so painful, so far ...
Mercedes open to supplying Red Bull with Formula 1 engines Mercedes open to supplying Red Bull with Formula 1 engines - F1 news - AUTOSPORT.com A Renault takeover of its former squad Lotus - which currently runs Mercedes power - is mooted, potentially releasing a Mercedes customer engine supply for Red Bull, in a partnership previously considered unthinkable.
Other than providing a flimsy distraction from the reality of Mercedes powered Red Bull's, I don't really see how this is a 'return' of Aston to F1. Other than an Aston Badge/logo appearing on the car how will the company be assisting Red Bull? They are better served just being honest and naming that partnership Red Bull Mercedes Racing.
If I was Alonso I would have my ear to the street and if this happens have Red Bull on speed dial. Alonso in Red Bull vs. Hamilton at Merc. F1 might actually be decent again
Seems a poor use of resources for an Aston that needs to invest big in its product line to stay competitive.
Maybe Chrysler can do the same with Haas F1. Its been a while since the Chrysler/Lambo days in the back of the Larousse.
