CHAPTER 3: TEAM TALK
There’s no lack of ambition in F1 at the moment as Ferrari chases a competitive comeback, Red Bull becomes an engine manufacturer in its own right and Aston Martin returns – aiming for championship glory in five years…
What’s behind the return of Aston Martin, along with Nigel Roebuck’s take on the marque’s previous F1 effort. Plus: Alpine, Ferrari’s fightback, Ineos and Mercedes, Red Bull and Honda, Mercedes engines for Mclaren and new hope for Williams
Lawrence Stroll isa man with a plan, as well as a mountain of ambition to match the size of his bulging bank account.
The 61-year-old Canadian made himself a billionaire with investments in the fashion world, and now he is set upon becoming a success in F1.
Stroll has loved F1 for decades and has been a key behind-the-scenes influencer since the 1990s. He’s preferred to operate under the radar, but becoming a team owner when he saved Force India from administration in 2018 raised his profile. Now he takes another step into the spotlight by renaming the team he called Racing Point after one of the world’s iconic motoring brands, Aston Martin.
“My aims with this, like the other businesses I’ve owned, are to win,” he says, in a rare interview. “The first step of winning was kind of what we accomplished with the team last year. Our goals for this year have only gotten greater.
“Turning this 31-year-old British institution into Aston Martin is really transformative in a motivational manner. I saw the guys putting up the Aston Martin sign (at the factory) and taking down the Racing Point one. There were tears.
“It’s kind of like we’ve found another gear now and it has raised everyone’s level of enthusiasm and excitement. And we all know that boils down to lap time one way, shape or form or another.”
The new name above the door has raised expectations, too. From a team battling in the upper midfield, notwithstanding Sergio Pérez’s maiden win in Bahrain last December, Stroll’s investment and the responsibility of a famous name mean the performance level of 2020 will now be considered the minimum starting point.
And as a statement of intent, signing four-time world champion Sebastian Vettel is significant. Now the team has to walk the walk.
HOW ASTON CAME BACK TO F1
For a man who has been a fan of F1 since the days of Gilles Villeneuve, and who has an extensive classic car collection, Stroll appears to have come to team ownership late. It can look from the outside as if a self-made billionaire has bought an F1 team as a vehicle for his son’s career – 22-yearold Lance is one of the team’s drivers – but Stroll says that for a long time he had “never thought about owning an F1 team”.
He was a shareholder in Team Lotus, he says, in the early 1990s, but other than that he says he always agreed with the famous old F1 adage. In his words: “How do you become a millionaire? Start with a billion and buy an F1 team.”
Stroll says his decisions to buy Racing Point, and then to take control of Aston Martin, and finally bring the two together, were based on cold, hard business logic, even if there was a bit of romance mixed in.
When US group Liberty Media bought F1 in early 2017, Formula 1 chairman Chase Carey explained his business plan to Stroll, an acquaintance of many years. The idea was to grow F1 as a business from $1.5bn to $2.5bn within five to seven years, by making the racing more competitive through the imposition of a budget cap. The field would also be limited to 10 teams.
The effect, Stroll believes, will be to turn F1 teams into franchises, in the manner of NFL or NBA teams, and to make them profitable businesses whose value will increase.
He says: “So based on FOM, based on what the team was already doing with only 400 people and only a $90m budget – so a third or a quarter of some of the other teams and still finishing fourth – I said: “That’s a hell of a group of guys.’ What’s any business about? People. So, I bought it as a business investment that I believe over the next five or 10 years will be way over a billion in valuation, based on all the other sports.
“By the way, if the team wouldn’t have been fourth two or three years in a row, and it was a team struggling in 10th with no chance, I would have had no interest.”
Stroll says he has “always thought Aston Martin was one of the greatest brands in the world” and he has owned “many” of their cars. He first approached the company’s owners in 2018 when he bought Racing Point. At that time, Aston’s deal with Red Bull to sponsor its F1 team and build the Valkyrie hypercar precluded an investment. But that changed in 2019, when the brand ran into financial difficulties and its owners decided on a rights issue, at the same time as the Red Bull deal was coming to an end.
“I did my due diligence and realised the potential was enormous,” Stroll says.
Stroll believes that with his new chief executive officer Tobias Moers, head-hunted from AMG, in place, and plans to expand the range, he can double Aston’s production to about 10,000 cars a year – about the same as Ferrari – and leave financial concerns well behind.
“Only then I said: ‘I own this F1 team and the best way to market Aston Martin is through owning its own F1 team,’” Stroll adds. “So that’s when the whole picture became clear. The two together make magic.”
WHERE THE F1 TEAM COMES IN
Creating a positive image for Aston Martin means the F1 team being a success, and Stroll says he is determined to push on from 2020.
A close commercial relationship with Mercedes – too close, many of their rivals would say – led to Racing Point’s most successful season last year. The car was cloned from a 2019 Mercedes – an exercise that, according to the FIA, went too far in copying the world champions’ rear brake ducts, one of the ‘listed parts’ teams have to design themselves. Racing Point was handed a 15-point deduction and fined €400,000.
But while the process was controversial, it was certainly effective. On balance, Racing Point had the third fastest car on the grid and missed out on that position in the constructors’ championship only through a combination of that penalty, a more complete performance from Mclaren, and the Racing Point drivers – Sergio Pérez and Lance Stroll – missing a total of three races with coronavirus, plus some bad luck.
Stroll defends the design approach to 2020, emphasising following the champions’ low-rake aerodynamic philosophy made sense given the team was buying a gearbox and rear suspension from Mercedes. Stroll insists “the biggest game changer for us was to go from 400 to 500 people”.
“In addition,” Stroll adds, “I gave them an extra £50m of budget that they didn’t have the year before. And the biggest contribution we had from Mercedes was that we began to use their wind tunnel. It was better than the wind tunnel we were using in Germany, the Toyota one.”
Stroll believes the introduction of the budget cap from 2021 will play into his hands, as the big teams have to reduce in headcount towards where Aston already is. Aston Martin remains a customer team to some degree – it still buys a number of parts from Mercedes, including the gearbox and its hydraulics, and permitted suspension components. But Stroll says he asked his senior managers whether this would stand in the way of success and they insisted it would not.
“I challenged Otmar [Szafnauer, the team principal] and [technical director] Andy Green, on that before Christmas,” Stroll says. “I said, ‘We have the new rules coming in for 2022. We are here to win. That’s why I’m here. It’s why we’re all here. But I have the ability to give us the resources we need to win – what would we do, if anything, differently in order to become world champions?’
“And Andy said, ‘My initial answer is I don’t think I would change a whole lot.’”
The thinking is that aerodynamics will remain the key differentiator under the new 2022 rules.
Stroll adds: “He [Green] said: ‘I believe we have the best tool in being able to be in the Mercedes wind tunnel.’ I said: ‘I’ll build our own.’ He said: ‘It will take us years and we’re not going to make it any better. And with the rules they’re not allowed to use theirs for the amount of time anyway, so it doesn’t make sense because of the limited times we are allowed to run, which are being reduced year by year. It is going to become more CFD and less wind tunnels.’
“He said: ‘Then it’s about people, having the best CFD guys, the best aerodynamicists. And of the 100 people we have added to the company, I’d say about 65% of them are in that area.’
“In 2022,” Stroll continues, “the cars are going to be remarkably the same [as each other]. The big differentiations today you won’t see in 2022 – good thing, bad thing, I’m not commenting; but they are going to be remarkably similar. So, it is going to be about your aero department, [and] of course things like reliability. But we are not going to get a better power unit, I don’t believe, than we get from Mercedes, I don’t think we need to go back to designing and building our own gearboxes; it is a dinosaur thing of the past.
“So, in the new factory we’re going to have 100% capability to build every single part inhouse. That’s a game-changer, because currently we contract a lot of it out because of the size of our facilities. We’re putting everything in place.”
THE DRIVER LINE-UP
The signing of Vettel is a calculated part of this ambition. The German’s reputation has been tarnished by his performances over the past four years at Ferrari, but Stroll believes a new environment, where he is loved and wanted, will bring out the best in Vettel and that his mere presence will strengthen the team.
“One of the ways we are going to be world champions is to get my guys to think and act like world champions,” Stroll explains. “And how you do that is you bring a four-time world champion into the team. I think he is going to take the team in a direction of leading us to where ultimately we want to be. So, I am not concerned. I know Sebastian well, and I have 100% confidence and belief he will do a fantastic job with us. He is more
“ONE OF THE WAYS WE ARE GOING TO BE WORLD CHAMPIONS IS TO GET MY GUYS TO THINK AND ACT LIKE WORLD CHAMPIONS”
LAWRENCE STROLL, OWNER ASTON MARTIN F1
motivated than he has ever been.”
Stroll is equally frank about his ambitions for his son. “To be world champion,” he says. Stroll Jr has had some strong results – not least his pole and leading half the race in Turkey last year – but not many believe he has consistently demonstrated he is the stuff of which champions are made. Nevertheless, Lawrence believes Lance has been “extremely impressive – I think at 21 he did an incredible job. Last year demonstrated he has the ability to perform very well.”
MORE WINS THE TARGET
Confidence is not in short supply. But having taken a team that has outperformed its budget in the last few years and furnished it with better resources, a new factory in the offing, and rules that ought to bring the big teams back towards them, Stroll sees good reason for his belief. Ambitious Stroll certainly is; naive he is not.
“F1 is a process that takes years to be successful, it is not an overnight,” Stroll says. “But no business is built overnight. This will be the same. I want to continue where we finished last year, only stronger. We had several podiums; we had a win. I’d like to have several more podiums and another win or two.
“Being very realistic, start knocking on the door for second, and with these new rule changes in 2022, which are all meant to bring the field closer together – at least that’s the intention, we will see if it’s the reality – then we’ll be more mature, we’ll be a full-grown team, we’ll be in our new factory. So, step-by-step fighting for more and more wins. And I think it’s very realistic.”
Andrew Benson is BBC Sport’s chief F1 writer
For several years grand prix racing had been in the mind of Aston Martin’s owner, David Brown, and in fact a lash-up single-seater had been built for Parnell to use in New Zealand in 1956. The following year a true F1 car was built, and tested by Tony Brooks, but the company’s focus remained on sportscar racing – in particular Le Mans, which it had never won – and throughout 1958 the F1 car sat in a corner of the workshop, a sheet over it.
“If we’d raced it in 1958, it might have been very good,” said Ted Cutting, its designer, “but we didn’t have the money or manpower to do both sportscars and F1. Brown’s obsession was winning Le Mans. We were optimistic we could do it that year – but in the event we didn’t.”
For 1959, therefore, there was a new plan. Aston Martin would not abandon its dream of winning Le Mans with the DBR1, but that would be the year’s only sportscar race: focus would otherwise switch to the DBR4 F1 car, which made its first appearance in May in the Daily Express Trophy at Silverstone.
A gorgeous-looking thing it was, too, reminiscent of Maserati’s iconic 250F – but therein lay the problem, for already the 250F was obsolete. That said, the Aston’s debut – while flattering to deceive – was unarguably impressive:
Salvadori qualified third, and ran a very competitive race, at one point battling with Brabham for the lead. In the end Roy finished second, while the other Aston of Carroll Shelby ran fourth until retiring just before the flag.
“In testing I’d found it fabulous to drive,” said Salvadori. “Perfectly balanced, drifted beautifully (halcyon days!), and had better brakes than anything else. But the engine – a 2.5-litre version of the 3-litre in the sportscars – was definitely short of power.”
There was another problem, too, which caused Shelby’s retirement at Silverstone, and was never properly solved. The smaller engine was designed to rev higher – and that caused endless bearing failures, accounting for both cars in the team’s GP debut at Zandvoort.
Aston Martin raced only spasmodically in F1 in 1959, and there’s no doubt that development was hampered by the company going back on its decision to limit sportscar competition to Le Mans. Under pressure from the Sebring organisers, a DBR1 was sent to the 12 Hours, and then Stirling persuaded the management to run a car at the Nürburgring 1000kms.
This was to rank among his legendary drives. Partnered by journeyman Jack Fairman, Stirling was in the car for 41 of the 44 laps – more than twice the length of the German GP – and single-handedly defeated a three-car Ferrari team. When Salvadori and Shelby then won Le Mans, achieving the Holy Grail, there existed a shot at winning the World Sportscar Championship, and three cars were entered for the Tourist Trophy at Goodwood. Another brilliant drive by Moss won both race and title.
In the meantime, though, the F1 programme was floundering. Although Salvadori qualified second for the British GP at Aintree, he finished only sixth after an uncomfortable afternoon. “We hadn’t run the cars on full tanks in practice, and as soon as the race started fuel began seeping into the cockpit. Both Carroll and I came in early, thinking the tank had split, but we were told to carry on. I was sitting in a pool of fuel, which was a bit worrying – but I carried on because the car was going really well. After a spin I finished sixth.”
That would be the best grand prix finish Aston Martin ever achieved. In Portugal and Italy the cars were neither on the pace nor reliable, and that was it for 1959.
The following year came the revised, lighter, DBR5 – but by now only Ferrari was still using a frontengined car. Worse, the introduction of Lucas fuel injection reduced power slightly, and the adoption of independent rear suspension, rather than de Dion, had a disastrous effect on handling, previously its strong suit. The long-suffering Salvadori remained on board, partnered now by Maurice Trintignant.
Aston Martin would only start the British GP in 1960, and after that race it was decided to call it a day. John Wyer, the team’s general manager, reckoned that in hindsight it had been a fatal decision to concentrate on sportscar racing in 1958, and to delay the introduction of the F1 car by a year. Like Salvadori, he believed that in 1958 the DBR4 could have won races.
“It was a good car simply overtaken by events,” said Wyer. “By the time it appeared, in 1959, everything front-engined was out of date, and we didn’t accept that early enough. In mid-1960 I discussed it with David Brown, and we agreed that if we wanted to get anywhere we had to start from scratch with a rear-engined car. At that point we decided to scrap the project.”
Like anyone of my generation, to me the name of Aston Martin – like Jaguar – always meant sportscar racing, in particular Le Mans. Somehow neither marque sat well in F1, but now, 61 years on, the renaming of Racing Point (née Jordan/midland/spyker/ Force India) brings Aston Martin back – albeit with a Mercedes engine. Sebastian Vettel, late of Ferrari, will hope things go rather better this time.
“DEVELOPMENT WAS HAMPERED BY THE COMPANY GOING BACK ON ITS DECISION TO LIMIT SPORTSCAR COMPETITION TO LE MANS”