Red Bull: After Audi, Aston Martin

In May, the departure of Volkswagen Group chairman Ferdinand Piech had led many sources to claim that Audi’s entrance into F1 was imminent, before the brand’s chairman denied it in the following days.

This time, the British Grand Prix must highlight one of the most famous local automotive brands. The rumor comes from the British magazine Autocar. The logic of this agreement would be that Mercedes holds a 5% stake in Aston Martin’s capital. This would allow Red Bull to acquire the Mercedes engine while benefiting from a technical partnership with the British manufacturer, which would be reflected by the presence of the brand on the sidepods of the race cars.

However, this type of agreement is exactly what the current situation already is: Renault supplies the engine but promotes the premium brand, Infiniti, of its 43% subsidiary, Nissan. However, the contract extends until the end of the 2016 season, while our colleagues claim that Aston Martin would arrive as early as next season.

When we see the integration of the Honda block into the McLaren chassis after more than a year and a half of working together, one can strongly doubt the immediate effectiveness of such a change. For example, we can note that even though Lotus has the best engine on the grid, they are still outpaced by the main team and even by Williams.

It can also be noted that Red Bull’s qualifications have been better than in recent times. Now, Silverstone is known to be an engine circuit. The French block has therefore certainly had to make progress thanks to the development tokens allocated during the season.

However, Mercedes, through Niki Lauda, non-executive director, quickly dismissed this rumor: « We never considered it because we already have four teams running with our engines, and we don’t have the capacity to do more. » the Austrian clarifies.

From our special correspondent in Silverstone