Racing Point F1 team to become Aston Martin in 2021
LONDON Racing Point will become the Aston Martin factory Formula One team from 2021 after its Canadian billionaire owner Lawrence Stroll bought a stake in the ailing British sports carmaker on Friday.
The deal means Aston Martin’s title sponsorship of former world champion Red Bull, which uses Honda engines, will end after the current season.
Stroll will pay £182 million ($318 million) for a 16.7 per cent stake in Aston Martin, which could rise to 20 per cent, and joins the board as executive chairman.
The 60-year-old Montreal native has been a paddock regular since his racing driver son, Lance, made his debut with Williams in 2017.
Lance Stroll, 21, joined Racing Point at the start of 2019 after his father bought the assets of Force
India, in administration under the co-ownership of financially troubled liquor baron Vijay Mallya, and renamed the team.
Stroll senior, listed last year by Forbes as the 18th-wealthiest Canadian with a fortune of US$2.6 billion ($3.44 billion), made his money through fashion brands such as Tommy Hilfiger and Michael Kors and owns the Mont-tremblant circuit in Quebec.
Former F1 supremo Bernie Ecclestone, who has known Stroll for more than 30 years, said it would be wrong to assume the businessman was only in F1 to help his son’s career.
“Definitely not the case. He’s a dealer,” the 89-year-old Briton said from Switzerland, where Stroll also has a residence. “And he’s a guy that loves his racing. He’s a motor racing guy.”
Aston Martin, a 107-year-old firm whose cars are closely associated with fictional British secret agent James Bond, competed in Formula One with a factory team in 1959 and 1960 with a best result of sixth.
Ecclestone, who was also around F1 at the time, said the Aston name was certainly better than Racing Point and Stroll was a team owner who would be striving to win rather than make up the numbers.
Racing Point use the same engines as champion Mercedes.
Aston Martin chief executive Andy Palmer told Autocar magazine that Stroll understood both the auto industry and luxury brands. “Lawrence shares a lot of my beliefs and passions ... he has a passion for F1, and F1’s ability to sell cars for you, he can see the value of the hybrid V6 and more. And he loves cars,” Palmer said.
Aston Martin said in a statement that the deal with Racing Point, which finished seventh overall in 2019 with Mexican Sergio Perez scoring 52 of its 73 points, was for an initial 10-year term.