Aston Martin: New title sponsor for the Red Bull F1 team

Red Bull and Aston Martin have announced a title and technical partnership. The team will now be known as the Aston Martin Red Bull Racing team for the 2018 season of Formula One.

Earlier in 2016, both companies had announced a collaboration for the Aston Martin Valkyrie project. Under the technical partnership, a new Advanced Performance Centre will be set up at Red Bull Racing’s campus in Milton Keynes, England later this year. The centre is expected to create 110 jobs and be home to 100 members of the Aston Martin’s design and engineering team. They will be working on future cars from this partnership.

Aston Martin further hinted about being involved in F1 as an engine manufacturer, given that there would be a limit on the total budget for the Formula 1 teams. Currently, Red Bull has a deal with Renault for their engines till the end of 2018. However, the team is uncertain on the power unit for the seasons from 2019-2021. Red Bull’s sister team, Toro Rosso will be trying out the Honda engines in the 2018 season, but expectations from it as an upgrade from the Renault sourced unit are low.

In the current 2017 season so far, the team is in 3rd place in the constructors standing. Daniel Ricciardo is on 4th place and Max Verstappen is on 6th in the individual championship standings. The deal with Aston Martin is similar to the one Red Bull had with Infiniti when it won the consecutive drivers' and constructors' championships between 2010 and 2013.