Aston Martin and Red Bull hypercar 'could be faster than an F1 car around Silverstone'

The Aston Martin and Red Bull AM-RB 001 hypercar could be faster than a Formula 1 car around Silverstone, according to Aston Martin CEO Andy Palmer.

Speaking exclusively to Autocar, Palmer revealed that the freer regulations around road car design than F1 design meant that Adrian Newey had targetted performance that could exceed that of the Red Bull F1 car.

“It’s a very edgy, spicy car,” said Palmer. “You probably wouldn’t want to take it through Hyde Park every day - it’s not that kind of car. There’s two seats and some baggage space, but you might not get the golf clubs in there. We’re saying it could be faster than an F1 car around Silverstone.”

Palmer also confirmed that the car will be a mid-engined two-seater and that some form of electrification was likely, although he hinted it is more likely to be via an F1-style energy recovery system (KERS) to give limited boosted performance than an all-electric powertrain.

“We’ll have a bespoke Aston engine,” he said. “To give us the kind of output we need it has to be a very special engine - it can’t be repurposed. We’re not commenting on the configuration beyond saying it is mid-engined and extraordinarily powerful. As you can imagine when we talk about pulling technology over from F1, you’d expect us to have some form of KERS-style electrical system.”

Andy Palmer, CEO Aston Martin, on the Red Bull hypercar deal

How did this deal come about?“We always said we wouldn’t go into F1 without authenticity, and that authenticity comes in the shape of a hypercar. I needed this car in my strategy for the second century of Aston Martin, to sit at the top of the range.

“To be our halo car it had to be something very special and to be very special it had to be mid-engined. We have never done a mid-engined car before. To move to mid-engined it had to be a car that would have no excuses - hence, the raison d’etre to make it the quickest car around a track.”

What prompted the deal with Red Bull?“Having set out to build the world’s best hypercar you then ask who will do your aero design. The natural partner was Adrian, who I knew from a previous life [through Infiniti’s sponsorship of Red Bull]. We made a connection.

“He was very excited as he’s always dreamt of doing a road car and we were very excited as he’s the most successful F1 designer out there. The relationship with Red Bull Racing came later, and in many ways, it’s part of visually cementing that relationship with Adrian.”

Where will this hypercar sit against its opposition?“It’s not for me to make comparisons, but McLaren once did an F1 and I guess it sits in that space, because of the link with a famous aero designer. There hasn’t been a car in that space until now.”