Aston Martin Formula 1 owner Lawrence Stroll has shot down rumours he’s looking to offload his team, stating that it couldn’t “be any further from the truth.”
The Silverstone-based squad has been under Stroll’s ownership since he revived the Force India outfit under the Racing Point moniker part-way through the 2018 season.
When Stroll became a part-owner of Aston Martin, leading an investment team takeover of the car brand in 2020 and becoming executive chairman in the process, the Canadian Billionaire rebranded the Racing Point F1 Team as Aston Martin for the 2021 season.
Stroll has since invested heavily in the team, attracting key personnel and developing a brand-new factory facility, which opened on the team’s existing site in Silverstone this year.
“I don’t know where that speculation came from,” Stroll told The New York Times of the exit rumours. “I’ve read it in one or two publications recently.”
Aston Martin entered the 2023 F1 season as radical overachievers, emerging as the closest challengers to Red Bull and scoring a run of six podiums in eight rounds.
But after a mid-season dip in form and struggles for Lawrence’s son Lance alongside experienced team-mate Fernando Alonso, rumours started to swell that Lawrence was looking to offload his team.
However, he goes on to state that his actions speak against the rumours.
“You don’t go spending hundreds of millions of pounds, building the greatest new Formula 1 campus, if you’re about to leave the business, and you don’t go hiring another 400 of the greatest employees if you’re about to leave the business,” he added.
“I’ve proven through my commitment, and it could not be any further from the truth, that I have any interest in ever not being the majority shareholder of this team for a very, very, very, very long time, and it is the same with the road car company.
“I plan to run these businesses for many, many years.”
On the hiring front, Stroll has been credited with attracting several key figures that have helped turn Aston Martin from midfield runners to challenging towards the front of the grid.
Team Principal Mike Krack, Group Chief Executive Officer Martin Whitmarsh, Technical Director Dan Fallows and Deputy Technical Director Eric Blandin have all been recruited by Stroll in recent years to turn his team into contenders.
The new factory facility means that Aston Martin has state-of-the-art systems to help design its F1 cars and Stroll has also been busy securing investment and partnerships for his outfit.
Saudi Arabian state-owned oil company Aramco, which partnered with the team in 2022, has now signed on as sole title partner in a five-year deal starting in 2024.
Stroll also negotiated a deal with Honda to supply engines to Aston Martin from 2026 which will make the Silverstone-squad Honda’s official works outfit.
As well as this, Stroll sold a minority share of the Aston Martin team’s parent company AMR Holdings GP Limited to American sports-focused private equity group Arctos Partners in November, which values the team at around $1 billion.
This deal helped put a stop to rumours that Stroll was looking to move on from his F1 project with the team’s Managing Director Jeff Slack saying Arctos would be the “last guys you would sell to,” given that they never operate as “control guys, they never own and operate anything, only minority stakes.”
Stroll added that “we’re not open for anymore [investment],” in his conversation with The New York Times.
“I always want to stay the majority shareholder. That will never change.
“When I say never, one day, but certainly not in the next 10 years, if I could put it in that duration. Hopefully longer.
“I’m not getting any younger each day. I feel younger, but I’m not getting any younger. But I’m not going anywhere.”
On his final investment deal for the team, Stroll was heavily complimentary to Arctos and is confident they will be of benefit to Aston Martin,
“It made great sense to take them as a minority partner for what they [Arctos] bring to the business,” he explained.
“They add value, and particularly in America with all their investments with their other sports teams.
“There have to be some financial synergies and commercial opportunities that we could do together through sponsorship, marketing, etcetera.
“So that was the motivation for letting them buy a minority stake. Great reputation, American-based, super people who are very aligned with my vision of a very long-term future.”
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