The relationship between Formula 1->ke190 and road cars is sometimes not all that clear, especially when compared to things like GT3 racing.->ke447 But every so often, a company that had hitherto existed only as a racing team will bring out a road car. McLaren->ke284 did this, then stopped and did it again more recently, and this is of course how Ferrari->ke252 got started. Now some recent reports suggest that Red Bull will be the next to bring out a street machine, with a bit of help from more established firms.
The first thing to do is the get all of the players in this story straight. The car is reportedly being worked on by Adrian Newey, who designed the cars that won Red Bull its F1 championships. But Newey is currently at Red Bull Technologies, which is a separate entity from Red Bull Racing.->ke731 A lot of the engineering and even some of the design work is being done by Aston Martin->ke13, and Aston is rumored to be teaming up with Red Bull for F1, but that's a different partnership. Finally, engines and powertrain components will reportedly come from Mercedes-Benz.->ke187
Continue reading for the full story.
Why it matters
It's not so unusual for a small manufacturer to reach out to a bigger company for an engine, Pagani->ke66 already does this with Mercedes-Benz, and even Morgan,->ke60 which produces far more units than Pagani, outsources all of its engines as well.
But for a company to enlist the help of a third automaker for engineering help is pretty rare, and it makes us wonder what exactly this car is going to entail. In fact, we can't even say for certain that the project is a road car, as some speculation suggests a track car, something akin to what Aston Martin already has with the 2016 Aston Martin Vulcan.
But very recently, at the Goodwood Festival of Speed, Red Bull Racing boss Christian Horner said that Red Bull building a road car was “inevitable.”
What seems pretty likely is something like the 2014 Ferrari LaFerrari or 2014 McLaren P1, a road-going supercar->ke177 with tons of racing tech that has street and racing versions with as much in common as is practical.
What remains to be seen, and this has the potential to get very strange, is what badge the car is going to wear. For all of the work being done by Aston, the project is headed up by Red Bull. But for all of Red Bull's racing prowess, it's difficult to imagine a supercar sharing branding with an energy drink. However it happens, we're eager to see it, and reports say we should get a glimpse in 2018.
2016 Aston Martin Vulcan
Read our full review here.