Infiniti Red Bull Racing: new team name for Formula One champions

The renaming of the team expands the involvement of Infiniti, the luxury brand of Japanese company Nissan that joined as a partner in March 2011.

Infiniti will become a major technical partner, with Red Bull Racing's heralded chief technical officer, Adrian Newey, suggesting at least one area of collaboration would be the team's KERS (kinetic energy recovery system), which has proved to be temperamental during the past two seasons.

“Formula One presents immense design and engineering challenges on a daily basis," said Newey. "Having a committed technical partner like Infiniti gives us a great platform for working together on technical projects, such as the Energy Recovery Systems for the 2014 season.”

The local reaction has been positive too, with Infiniti Cars Australia’s public relations manager Peter Fadeyev telling CarAdvice that the partnership with Formula 1, and specifically Red Bull Racing, has been very beneficial to raising the profile of Infiniti around the world, including Australia.

“Since the company has partnered with Red Bull Racing, we’ve seen an increase in the profile of the brand in all of its 48 markets,” Fadeyev said.

“Our local research, before we even entered the market, reveals very clearly that Formula 1 was a sport that many prospective luxury car buyers identified with."

Red Bull Racing has also formed a strong link with the other half of the Renault-Nissan alliance, with the team's race cars powered by V8 engines developed by the French company.

Infiniti has already been capitalising on its tie-up with Red Bull, using Sebastian Vettel in advertising as well as producing a limited edition FX SUV (pictured above) named after the F1 champion.

The FX forms part of Infiniti's line-up, along with the M sedan, after Infiniti recently launched in Australia. The Infiniti G coupe and convertible are released in December.