Red Bull Team Principal Christian Horner has refused to elaborate on speculation Aston Martin could be set to increase their partnership with the team, potentially becoming a new title sponsor.
Amid the flurry of engine announcements on Friday and following reports Renault will not renew their engine deal with the team post-2018, Horner dropped a hint Red Bull has something in the works.
“There will be another announcement coming soon that isn’t Porsche or Honda,” he told Sky Sports referring to engine suppliers that have been linked to the team in recent days. “We have a relationship with a car firm.”
That car firm is Aston Martin, with who Red Bull has worked with both on and off the track, however, asked if that was the company he was referring to, the Briton refused to be drawn.
“You can speculate all you like but I’m not going to confirm anything,” team boss Christian Horner told Motorsport.com. “We’ve got a great relationship with Aston, obviously working on and developing the Valkyrie hypercar for them.
“They’re doing a great job, the product is great, and they’ve got a lot of great stuff in the pipeline. There will be news to follow in weeks to come.”
The famous British luxury car brand has been linked to greater involvement in F1 with CEO Andy Palmer confirming long-term considerations are underway, although wouldn’t mention anything regarding next year.
“It’s fair to say that one of the reasons I’m here today is to discuss what next season looks like and within that context, do we or don’t we provide an independent engine in 2021? And then join the dots,” he said in Singapore.
“As a company, we kind of sit in the same world as F1, often with the same engineers. So the technical capability exists, it’s just a matter of money,” he added.
“Up to a point it’s OK, but if we are going to continue to have heat recovery systems, no cap on the spend, and as many dynamometer hours as you like, then we’ll check out.
“But if there is a way of making it work, I think the sport would be a lot richer.”
