More than just a livery. We explore the meaning behind our new-look F1 car celebrating the launch of Generation 3 with our title partner, Aramco, in the build-up to the United States Grand Prix. And, with the help of AI and our friends at ElevenLabs and DeepReel, listen to this feature in English, Spanish or French in the voice of Fernando Alonso using the player above.
To mark the launch of our Generation 3 programme with our title partner, Aramco, we're taking to the streets of downtown Houston to perform a thrilling demonstration run with our F1 car that will be sporting a stunning new livery ahead of the United States Grand Prix.
It's an opportunity to harness the vast appeal of one of the biggest events on the Formula One calendar and inspire a new generation to pursue careers in science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) as we highlight the impact F1 technology has on the real world and celebrate the innovative powerhouse our title partnership with Aramco has become. That's a lot of work for one exciting F1 car livery to do...
SIGNALLING THE START OF A JOURNEY
Generation 3 takes to the streets of Houston.
Generation 3
Every Formula One Grand Prix is a huge event in its own right, but the racing season also has a natural rhythm in which certain races rise to greater prominence. The United States Grand Prix, held at the Circuit of the Americas in Texas, is one such marquee event with a massive live and broadcast audience. The world is watching when Formula One comes to Texas – which is why it's the perfect time to launch our Generation 3 programme, in partnership with Aramco.
The '3' in Generation 3 refers to the three entities active on the platform: Aston Martin, Aramco and You. The latter is intentionally all-encompassing. The popularity and positioning of F1 brings with it a global audience: everyone from industry leaders to students, by way of an army of motorsport fans that cover every demographic. 'You' can be anyone. 'You' can be everyone.
Generation 3 is a global initiative, building on the successes of our partnership over the last three years, designed to leverage cutting-edge technologies from F1 and beyond. In recent times, with Aramco, we've built a broad portfolio of STEM-based events, from workshops to internships, combined with high-profile and thought-provoking activations designed to engage and inspire. A prime example is Jessica Hawkins becoming the first woman to drive the current generation of F1 car, taking the AMR22 out onto Riyadh Boulevard in the Saudi capital.
Generation 3 will continue these themes, aiming to innovate through the materials and advanced fuels being developed by our partnership, illustrate the impact on the real world of developments made in F1 and inspire the next generation of scientists, innovators, engineers and game-changers of the future.
The livery
To celebrate the launch of the programme, we're running our AMR22 F1 car, painted and wrapped in a bespoke Generation 3 livery, through the streets of Houston. The livery is a one-off, designed for this event. It won't be used on the track at the Circuit of the Americas, though the AMR24 will race with enhanced Aramco branding to reflect the programme launch.
Aston Martin Aramco development driver Jak Crawford will be at the wheel, taking the car past many of his adopted hometown's most famous landmarks before reaching its thrilling climax in front of students at The Ion – the central hub of the Ion District, a technology and innovation park in Midtown Houston, established in 2021 as a joint venture between the City and Rice University.
Creating the livery for a Formula One car is not the work of a moment. The complex contours of the aerodynamic surfaces do not present a straightforward billboard, but our technicians at the AMR Technology Campus have decades of experience in painting and vinyl wrapping.
The more complex elements of bringing a new design into the light are ensuring the livery works day or night, rain or shine, that it pops for both a live and broadcast audience, and that it meets the approval of our many partners. It requires many months of planning and dialogue – but the opportunity to launch Generation 3, in a city that hosts one of Aramco's largest research centres, was simply too good to miss.
The livery itself – and the bespoke race suit being worn by Jak – feature elements of the Generation 3 iconography, while anyone getting up close to the bodywork will see messages from local university STEM students featuring within those elements. The students were asked a simple question: what inspires you? Their answers ranged from the thought-provoking to the heartwarming – but many spoke to the fundamental aims of Generation 3: 'succeeding in the face of adversity'; 'creating solutions that change lives'; 'driving innovation to better the world'.
These answers go to the heart of the initiative. Much of our work to date with Aramco has been built around the belief that the biggest challenges of today and tomorrow are going to be met via collaboration and engineering excellence. Generation 3 is, in essence, a programme designed to empower people to pursue innovative solutions.
For us, in our single-minded pursuit of sporting excellence, it means driving performance on track; out in the wider world though, it means delivering social, empirical impact. Our partnership with Aramco applies and demonstrates new technologies to solve technical challenges, delivers real-world impact and inspires the next generation. Generation 3 is tailor-made to deliver those goals.
Shaping the future in F1 and beyond
Our programme, in turn, fits in with the greater goals of Formula One. The most obvious of which is the intention for the sport to hit net carbon zero by 2030 and, ahead of that, introduce a new power unit in 2026 which will see a 50:50 split between combustion and electrical power, with no loss of performance and a combustion element delivered with a 100 per cent sustainable fuel. To these ends, we have a formal technical collaboration between ourselves, Aramco (advanced fuels), Valvoline (lubricants) and Honda (power units) to deliver a competitive chassis and power unit for the start of F1's next era.
F1 took its first steps into the world of hybrid technology in 2009. By 2014 it had introduced a much more sophisticated and higher-powered hybrid system that has gradually developed in horsepower, reliability, efficiency and driveability. In that time, the sport has played a significant role in altering the perceptions of hybrid and electric propulsion as it has gone from an unfancied alternative tech to something approaching ubiquity in the global car park.
This next step in F1 engine technology will go further – but our collaboration with Aramco goes beyond fuel and propulsion. We're collaborating on a range of technologies with the potential to be deployed in road vehicles, from lightweight materials to safety enhancements. Of course, inspiration doesn't always follow a linear path. Our ambition for Generation 3 is that it will shape the future – but unlike our demonstration run, what direction that will take is more difficult to know. These are exciting times, and we would like you to come with us on the journey.
SPOTLIGHT
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