Aston Martin enters the F1 race

Aston Martinn is to build what it’s describing as “an F1 car for the road”, the fastest most extreme road car ever, capable of beatingAston Martin cars on a circuit. What’s more, it is doing so in collaboration with Adrian Newey, the most successful Grand Prix car designer in the history of the sport. Cars engineered by Newey have won Formula One World Championships for the Williams, McLaren and most recently Red Bull F1 teams.

Aston Martin is to partner with Red Bull in F1, starting with this weekend’s opening race in Australia. Its name and logo will appear on the nose and side pods of Red Bull-TAG Heuer F1 cars, with the brand to become the team’s innovation partner. Red Bull’s Advanced Technology subsidiary, led by Newey, will co-engineer and co-design the
Newey, will co-engineer and co-design the road car, codenamed AM-RB 001 and expected to launch two years from now at a stratospheric cost likely to be in excess of £2m.

Newey’s eagerness to spread his wings beyond F1, where he believes over-prescriptive rules are hampering innovation in engineering, led to the formation of Red Bull Advanced Technology two years ago. The operation is already working with Land Rover Ben Ainslie Racing on development of the team’s America’s Cup boat for 2017.

The AM-RB 001 meanwhile will be the first road car Newey has designed in a career in F1 dating back to the 1980s. He is said to be determined to deliver a F1 experience for wealthy road car users. The car has been under development at Aston Martin’s Gaydon, Warwickshire HQ since the start of the year and is said to include a level of attention to aerodynamic detail - Newey’s signature - never before seen on a road car. “Honestly,” an insider told us, “you have never seen anything like this. It is another world altogether.”

Outright performance, while almost certainly extraordinary, is not Newey’s ultimate aim and development is concentrated on delivering a visceral driving experience. In this sense the Aston hyper-car will be closer in character to the McLaren F1 of the 1990s, itself the product of a savant F1 engineer Gordon Murray, whose designs won World Championships for Brabham and McLaren in the 1980s.

The F1 was distinguished by its lightness and tiny package which squeezed a driver, two passengers and a large capacity V12 engine inside a tiny footprint, in part by locating the driver in the middle of the car. Newly has showed some thinking on road car design in the past with the X1 concept for the popular PlayStation platform GranTurismo, although the project has no bearing on the AM-RB 001. Aston Martin has indicated that the new car will be a two seater, so it remains to seen whether the car will feature a traditional layout or sit driver and passenger behind each other, tandem-style, like the X1.

There is no word yet on what engine and drivetrain will power the car, but given the need for a compact package Aston’s bulky V12 seems unlikely. That leaves its new-generation turbo V8 under development with partners Mercedes, or indeed an entirely new powertrain. Current generation F1 cars use complex hybrid systems to reclaim energy otherwise lost in the car’s braking and turbocharger systems.

Last year Aston Martin launched the limited edition Vulcan track car, based loosely on its One-77 super GT. Both cars were the work of prolific head of studio Marek Reichman who will work with Newey on the upcoming car. Reichman has already indicated that Aston is eager to up its game, especially in the field of aerodynamics - the new DB11 GT launched earlier this month included numerous ground-breaking innovations in that field. The AM-RB 001 will be at another level, given Newey’s near mystical understanding of airflows.

Speaking on the eve on the Australian Grand Prix, where the partnership has just been announced, Newey said; “From the age of six I have had two goals in life – to be involved in the design of racing cars, and to be involved in the design of a super car.

“Whilst the former ambition went on to form my career to date, the latter has always bubbled away, resulting in countless sketches and doodles over the years. The opportunity to now develop and realise those ideas whilst working with Marek and his colleagues from Aston Martin is tremendously exciting. It allows us to translate the technology we have developed in F1 into a new arena.”
Source: Telegraph