The powertrain will be all-new: a performance hybrid marrying electrifi-
cation with an in-house turbocharged V6 mounted longitudinally behind
the cockpit. The aggressively mass- and weight-optimised package, shaped
indirectly by the performance-obsessed brain of Newey, is cloaked in body-
work at once elegant like an Aston and aero-efficient like a Red Bull.
The goal? ‘A true supercar,’ insists Aston’s chief technology officer Max
Szwaj. ‘A car with a compact powertrain, mid-engined agility, impressive
aero performance and light weight, with a fine balance of usability and
performance. It’s easy to design a track car: it only has one function. This
car will be usable. You could drive it across Europe, and yet it also needs the
performance you’d expect on track, for a trackday or as the base for a Le
Mans racer – that’s the challenge.’
If the Red Bull F1 tie-up is one neat way of fast-tracking Aston Martin
to mid-engined pedigree, the other is recruitment. And with the Vanquish
project breaking cover, some of Andy Palmer’s hires begin to look like the
hand-picked dream team they are. Szwaj brings frontline experience from72 CARMAGAZINE.CO.UK | APRIL 2019
Aggressively
mass- and
weight-optimised,
and indirectly
shaped by Newey
THE OLD AND THE NEW
‘The Aston Martin grille has always
been defined by the upper portion- look at DB5, DB6, DB9 and
DB11,’ explains Marek Reichman.
‘The bottom of the grille doesn’t
define the shape; that comes from
the upper section. With Vulcan
and then Vantage we emphasised
that upper portion, and now – with
Valkyrie and this car – the S-curve
of the upper grille is extremely well
defined in the surface language.
You no longer even need the lower
section. It might be lost in shadow
but your mind reads it nonetheless,
and completes the circle.’
A FACE TO LOVE
‘Thanks to Valkyrie you already
know this as the face of a mid-
engined Aston Martin,’ continues
Reichman. ‘The others don’t
really have a face; Ferrari doesn’t,
McLaren doesn’t, Lamborghini
doesn’t, apart from the eyes. But
we do, and it brings character –
our cars have character. The face
helps bring that and, by employing
the same team that sculpted the
surfaces of cars like the DB11, the
Zagatos, the DBX and the Vantage,
you organically put some of that
same Aston Martin character into a
mid-engined car.’