Perfection is rarely visible at first glance. In Formula 1, it can emerge from aerodynamic decisions shaping airflow around a car before it ever reaches a circuit. In whisky making, it begins with choices made years before a bottle is opened.
This shared philosophy sits at the centre of the second year of the partnership between Glenfiddich and Aston Martin Formula One Team, marked by the launch of the Glenfiddich & Aston Martin Formula One Team 16-Year-Old Limited-Edition Release No.2. Inspired by Glenfiddich Malt Master Brian Kinsman and Aston Martin Formula One Team Managing Technical Partner Adrian Newey, the release explores how exceptional performance often depends on details hidden beneath the surface.
Kinsman may work with casks rather than carbon fibre, yet both disciplines rely on hundreds of individual decisions ultimately working as one.
“What I find most compelling about Adrian’s work is that the defining performance often comes from what you cannot immediately see,” Kinsman says. “Behind every Aston Martin Formula One Team car are hundreds of small decisions, carefully refined to create a seamless whole. The same is true in whisky making.”
The Details Behind the Result
For the new 16-year-old expression, this pursuit takes the form of a five-cask maturation involving first-fill bourbon barrels, Port pipes, Oloroso sherry casks, wine casks and a final influence from Fino sherry butts. Each contributes a distinct quality without overpowering the whole.
“The art lies not in the individual components, but in bringing them together in a way that feels perfectly balanced and instinctively right,” Kinsman explains.
Balance provides the most convincing parallel with Formula 1.
A racing car cannot be reduced to a single component. Aerodynamics, power delivery, suspension, materials and countless other systems must perform together under extreme conditions. Aston Martin’s AMR Technology Campus and advanced wind-tunnel facilities embody the same principle, bringing numerous unseen engineering decisions together in pursuit of performance.
Whisky develops at a different pace, though foresight remains just as important. Kinsman makes decisions around spirit and maturation long before their full effect can be tasted. Newey develops aerodynamic ideas and future machinery before the finished car exists.
Both require confidence in decisions whose value may only become apparent years later.
Patience as Performance
The long view forms perhaps the most interesting connection between the two disciplines.
Formula 1 may be associated with immediacy — lap times, race strategy and split-second decisions — yet the machinery competing on Sunday represents months or years of research, modelling, testing and refinement.
Whisky stretches the same principle across an even longer timeline.
Temper Bar‘s F1-inspired cocktails, Podium Spirtz & The Conductor with Glenfiddich. Images courtesy of Temper Bar.
The Glenfiddich release unfolds through layers of fruit, richness and oak, with tasting notes ranging from stewed fruits, florals, marzipan and polished leather to buttery toffee, caramelised cane sugar and dry oak tannin. Bottled at 43 percent ABV, it finishes with a long oaky sweetness.
The finished liquid may appear effortless. The process behind it is anything but.
This distinction makes the collaboration more convincing than a simple meeting of two luxury names. Whisky making and Formula 1 engineering are not the same craft; what connects them is a discipline built around refinement, balance and the pursuit of improvement.
Bringing the Pursuit to Singapore
The timing gives the partnership particular relevance in Singapore. The limited-edition release has been available locally since 1 September, with Glenfiddich extending the collaboration into race-week experiences across the city.
Among them is Coast to Toast: Glenfiddich AMF1 Edition at High House on 10 October, alongside race-inspired cocktails served at participating venues including ANTI:DOTE, High House, temper., Tess Bar, Writers Bar and VUE.
Left to right: High House’s F1-inspired cocktail, Green Sector with Glenfiddich & Tess Bar’s F1-inspired cocktail, Pit Lane Nightcap with Glenfiddich. Images courtesy of High House & Tess Bar.
These activations bring the partnership into the atmosphere surrounding the Singapore Grand Prix, though its more enduring idea lies beneath the spectacle.
Formula 1 and whisky making operate on vastly different timescales. Both nevertheless reveal how exceptional outcomes take shape long before the finished result appears. Perfection may be impossible to define, but its pursuit begins in the details others may never notice.
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