Aston Martin in F1 talks with Red Bull over Mercedes engine

[Dingle Dell]

Hot off the press.

http://www.autosport.com/news/report.php/id/119849...

Would be great to see.

[Dingle Dell]

TBH, The branding issue is meaningless to me - it goes on in many areas of motorsport.

When I said it would be great to see, I was meaning from the point of view that there would be another competitive team in F1 again so that the Mercedes team didn't dominate every weekend.

[Dingle Dell]

RichB said:

Sorry, there's nothing to suggest that a Mercedes engine and an Aston Martin sticker on a Red Bull would suddenly make it competitive. Williams have Merc engines but don't challenge Mercedes works team.

Not sure what the relevance of the Aston sticker is if we are talking about performance! Of course there is no guarantee, but Red Bull's sucess over the last 5 years or so is a little different from Williams. Red Bull has been the dominant car with regard to downforce for many years now (this year aside) so it's entirely possible they could take the fight to Mercedes. Newey moving jobs seems to have hurt them (surprise, surprise) this year, but I wouldn't write them off.

The Renault engine this year is enough to make a good car look average, while Williams go from midfield to a podium contender just by switching to Merc power.

Remember that a Red Bull with a customer Renault engine did beat the factory Renault team.

Edited by Dingle Dell on Saturday 4th July 23:12

[Dingle Dell]

While the F1 deal seems unlikely, it only takes Renault to buy out Lotus (to run as their factory team), as is being touted, to open up Mercedes to be able to supply another team.

Despite some denials from others, Toto Wolff has not ruled out supplying Red Bull / Torro Rosso in 2017, though no mention was made of Aston during that particular interview.