Aston Martin in Formula One

The Aston Martin DBR4 which was driven by Roy Salvadori and Carroll Shelby.

Aston Martin first entered Formula One with the DBR4, their first open-wheel racing car. The DBR4 was first built and tested in 1957, but did not make its Formula One debut until 1959. This delay was caused by the company prioritising development of the DBR1 sports car, which went on to win the 1959 24 Hours of Le Mans. By the DBR4's world championship debut at the Dutch Grand Prix, it had become outdated and struggled for pace against its competitors, with Carroll Shelby and Roy Salvadori qualifying 10th and 13th respectively out of 15.[2][3] Salvadori retired from the race in the early laps with an engine failure, with Shelby's car suffering the same fate later in the race.[4]

The team's next entry came at the British Grand Prix where Salvadori surprised by qualifying in 2nd place.[5] Early in the race, one of Shelby's ignition magnetos failed, harming his car's pace. The second magneto failed late in the race, causing his retirement. Salvadori could only hold on to 6th place, narrowly missing out on a points finish.[6] At the Portuguese Grand Prix, both cars avoided issues to finish 6th and 8th but still failed to score points.[7] Aston Martin's final entry of the season was the Italian Grand Prix where both cars continued to struggle, qualifying only 17th and 19th.[8] During the race, Salvadori had run as high as 7th before suffering an engine failure whilst Shelby came home to finish 10th.[9] The car was significantly outdated by its rivals and failed to score any points.[2]

Aston Martin built the DBR5 to compete in the 1960 season. The DBR5 was based on its predecessor but was lighter and featured an independent suspension. However, the car had a heavy engine in the front and was regularly outclassed by the more commonplace rear-engined cars.[2][10] The team's first entry of the season came at the Dutch Grand Prix, but the DBR5 was not yet ready to compete. As a result, only Salvadori was entered into the race, driving the spare DBR4. He could only qualify 18th.[11] Despite being allowed to start the race, Aston Martin were told by the race organisers that they would not be paid. The team therefore refused to start the race.[12] The DBR5s were ready for the team's next race in Britain, with Salvadori and Maurice Trintignant taking part. Salvadori retired from the race with steering problems, and Trintignant could only finish 11th, five laps behind the leader.[13]

Following this string of poor results, with the team failing to score a single championship point,[14] Aston Martin abandoned Formula One entirely after the British Grand Prix to focus on sports car racing.

In 2006, David Richards, who leads the consortium that owns Aston Martin, and his tech firm Prodrive were granted a spot as a potential entrant for the 2008 Formula One World Championship.[15] Upon speculation of an Aston Martin F1 return, Richards made it clear that Aston Martin had a long way to go until it was ready for an F1 team. He believed the route to being competitive was to partner with an existing team, rather than setting up a new team with Aston Martin and Prodrive.[16] In 2009, Richards again announced his intent to return to Formula One in 2010 with the possibility of using the Aston Martin name, however, this did not come to fruition.[17] Between 2016 and 2020 Aston Martin served as a sponsor for Red Bull Racing, and as title sponsor of the team between 2018 and 2020.[18][19]

In January 2020, a funding investment from Racing Point owner Lawrence Stroll into Aston Martin saw him take a 16.7 percent stake in the company.[20][21] This resulted in the commercial rebranding of Racing Point UK's Racing Point F1 Team into Aston Martin F1 Team for the 2021 season. The team competes with Mercedes power units, which it has done under its various names since 2009.[22] Sergio Pérez was under contract to drive for them until 2022, but he was replaced by four-time World Drivers' Champion Sebastian Vettel, who previously drove at Ferrari, for the 2021 championship.[23][24] Cognizant is the team's title sponsor.[25]