'I drove the Porsche 961 up the Goodwood hill. The 961? Indeed': Andrew Frankel
Do rebranding exercises actually work? I guess that they must because otherwise no-one would bother, but I still goggle at the millions paid to agencies full of sharp-suited, gimlet-eyed advertising executives to fractionally change a logo here, alter a tagline there. And I do know that sometimes they really don’t work. You may remember that to bring itself into the new millennium the Post Office decided to rebrand. After two years of consultancy
it changed its name from Post Office, which everyone knew and understood, to Consignia, which meant nothing to anyone. Sixteen months later they changed it back again. The adventure cost the Post Office £2m, its chief executive’s job and an incalculable amount of reputational damage.
Why this now? Because Aston Martin is rebranding too. Thankfully the name’s not changed, but the badge has, and the tagline too. The famous wings have lost one of their previous 22 feathers and the words ‘Aston Martin’ have been made a bit more bold. Fair enough: I’ve looked at both new and old logos for so long it made me squint but I still couldn’t tell you which one I preferred. I have clearer views on the tagline which was, you may remember ‘Power, Beauty, Soul’. It’s not any more. Now it is ‘Intensity. Driven’. Frankly, I’d rather they’d just left it alone.
What it has done is abandon a phrase that to me sums up absolutely what an Aston Martin should be, in favour of one that could apply to any number of car manufacturers from Caterham to Lamborghini. Ironically, I’d not count Aston Martin among their number. I don’t want an Aston to be intense: inspiring, of course, exciting naturally; but intense?
I don’t think so, unless you’re driving a Valkyrie which is probably quite unlikely. I expect it’s been done in full knowledge that it doesn’t quite suit the Aston Martin of today, because it will define far better the Aston Martins of tomorrow. If you look at its most recent products, the Vantage F1 Edition, V12 Vantage and the DBX707 [see our road test on page 44] and consider the mid-engined products in the pipeline, the direction of travel is clear: Aston Martin is going to become a far more sporting brand. Far more, well, intense.
I just hope that in the process it doesn’t forget the cars that made it great in the first place: the DB2, DB4 and original V8 Vantage to name but three. These were great driver’s cars but they were not intense. Then again perhaps I’m overthinking it. I have a thing about taglines, my favourite being ‘The Appliance of Science’. Sadly it belongs to a Zanussi washing machine.
“Adrian Newey said he felt ‘part of the furniture’ at Red Bull”
I was talking to Adrian Newey last month and mentioned that he was now in his 16th season with Red Bull Racing, twice as long as he’s spent with any other team. He looked slightly surprised. We were just chatting rather than doing a formal interview so I don’t have his response verbatim, but essentially he said he felt “part of the furniture” at Red Bull in a way he never had at either Williams or McLaren. Those were already long-established and highly successful teams when he joined with clearly identified top dogs – Frank Williams and Patrick Head at the former, Ron Dennis and Martin Whitmarsh at the latter. And while he clearly had an important role to play, that was never going to change.
By contrast he joined Red Bull in only its second season and while it had taken over the bare bones of the former Jaguar operation, it was a new team with a new identity and a new reputation to forge, and Adrian has been as integral to that process as anyone else. Turns out it was what he’d always been looking for. He’d nearly had it when he’d come within minutes of joining Jaguar a few seasons earlier and he’d had it briefly when he first went to work for March/Leyton House in the late 1980s. If that had turned out the way he hoped, “I could still have been there now.” As it was it ended up “being run by accountants”, he left, joined Williams and the rest is history.
What to do about the ever-expanding grand prix calendar? Last year Saudi Arabia joined the circus, this year Miami. Next year Las Vegas is in and Shanghai is returning. Most beguiling of all is the possibility of the South African Grand Prix to held at the reasonably newly rebuilt Kyalami. Even with a 24-race season, something clearly has to give and currently it’s Paul Ricard and Spa in the firing line.
So far as the French Grand Prix is concerned, I’d be happy for there to be only one grand prix in that part of the world and for that to be located in Monaco, even though that’s threatened too. I know the racing is often dull, but qualifying is scintillating and just watching cars that large and fast run that close to the barriers carries its own fascination.
But lose Spa? I wouldn’t put it past Formula 1 to drop what I have no doubt most people would rate as the greatest race on the calendar in pursuit of its global ambitions, but I am also mindful of the number of times the British Grand Prix has been brought back from the brink.
What would I drop instead? The Baku City Circuit is fast and challenging but its contract ends next year and faced with the choice of losing that or Spa, I know which way I’d be leaning. But sadly I expect it’s rather less simple than that.
A former editor of Motor Sport, Andrew splits his time between testing the latest road cars and racing (mostly) historic machinery
Follow Andrew on Twitter @Andrew_Frankel