BWT to continue as Aston Martin partner

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Aston Martin has confirmed that Austrian water technology company BWT will extend its partnership with the team into 2021.

BWT has been a key sponsor of Racing Point since 2017 when the team was still called Force India, in a deal that saw the cars running a bright pink livery leading to them being dubbed the 'pink panthers'.

But with Cognizant taking over as title sponsor and the team rebranding as Aston Martin for this season, the livery is expected to change to a predominantly British racing green.

It had been expected that BWT would end its tie-up with the team. However on Wednesday it was announced that it will remain a partner after all, and that pink will still feature on the cars in some way..

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“Our friends at BWT have been loyal supporters of this team and I am delighted they have chosen to be a partner of Aston Martin," said CEO and team principal Otmar Szafnauer.

"BWT will support our efforts to become more sustainable in all areas of the business, but especially in our trackside operations, a goal that marries up with F1's own sustainability objectives.

"This is a strong and historic partnership entering an important new era, and we are all excited to see what we can achieve together.”

The team's new livery and AMR21 chassis will be revealed next Wednesday, and "will be very different featuring an all-new base colour" according to a press release from the team.

However the new deal means that subtle BWT brand accents as well as BWT brand logos will remain a feature of the all-new livery.

“I am proud to continue supporting this wonderful team of people and to start a new chapter with Aston Martin’s return to F1," said BWT CEO Andreas Weissenbacher.

"Having seen the team enjoy such a strong 2020 season, we believe the years ahead are full of great promise and we want to continue supporting this team’s journey towards the front of the grid."

He added that BWT would work with Aston Martin "to achieve its objectives away from the track by becoming more sustainable" by "continuing the work from last year to cut down the use of disposable bottles at the track, minimise plastic waste and facilitate the local treatment and consumption of water.

"Additionally, we are looking forward to starting cooperation with more people in the F1 community who are also convinced of our mission to fight for a plastic-free planet and who are ready to spread this mission to people around the globe.”

Lance Stroll remains with the team for another season, and he will be joined by four-time world champion Sebastian Vettel.

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Andrew Lewin

Andrew first became a fan of Formula 1 during the time when Michael Schumacher and Damon Hill were stepping into the limelight after the era of Alain Prost, Nigel Mansell and Aryton Senna. He's been addicted ever since, and has been writing about the sport now for nearly a quarter of a century for a number of online news sites. He's also written professionally about GP2 (now Formula 2), GP3, IndyCar, World Rally Championship, MotoGP and NASCAR. In his other professional life, Andrew is a freelance writer, social media consultant, web developer/programmer, and digital specialist in the fields of accessibility, usability, IA, online communities and public sector procurement. He worked for many years in magazine production at Bauer Media, and for over a decade he was part of the digital media team at the UK government's communications department. Born and raised in Essex, Andrew currently lives and works in south-west London.