racefans9 Dec 2019 13:17
When first a source contacted me with suggestions that a consortium connected to Racing Point F1 team boss Lawrence Stroll intended making a bid for a buy-in of beleaguered Aston Martin – whose London Stock Exchange share price (AML) has plunged 75 per cent since listing a year ago while sales forecasts have thrice been downgraded since then – the idea of an F1 boss buying a car company seemed rather far-fetched.
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But said source is no ordinary Formula 1 mover and shaker, but a senior motor industry figure who in the past has been absolutely on the money when it comes to industry developments that impact on F1. And Stroll is no ordinary F1 team boss.
Stroll is a brand builder par excellence, having elevated various fashion labels to dizzying stock exchange heights. The Canadian billionaire, who started life in Montreal’s rag trade (literally), is a car enthusiast deluxe – owning some of the world’s most delectable Ferraris, plus much more on the auto front. He also owns the sinuous Mont Tremblant circuit, host of the 1968 and 1970 Canadian Grands Prix, a two-hour drive from the race’s current home.
An associate of Stroll is Lord Anthony Bamford, scion of the founder of the JCB construction equipment brand, another car collector of note with a delectable portfolio of Aston Martins. He briefly pursued a takeover of Jaguar from Ford in the 2000s and was the architect of the JCB Diesel Max land speed record breaker (at 560 kph, driven by Andy Green), a project staged to ‘showcase British engineering’.
The JCB logos on Racing Point’s cars – and previously Williams’s when Lance Stroll drove for that team – attest to the bond between the two billionaires.
Lance Stroll, Racing Point, Sochi Autodrom, 2019
An Aston Martin deal would clearly benefit Racing Point
None of these factors, though definitively link Stroll (or Bamford, or any other of the Racing Point shareholders) to an Aston Martin buy-in, particularly when taken in conjunction with (on-record) ‘no-comment’ responses both Aston Martin and the prospective punter.
That said, when approached, neither party issued straight denials – as dictated by good business sense were the information wide of the mark, particularly given Aston Martin’s listed status and the impact on share price, which soared 20 per cent immediately after our news broke. At the time of writing, over eight hours after the story broke, no official word has been uttered.
Yet, our source is adamant a deal is in the offing. Why, then, would it even make sense? Certainly, the Aston Martin brand is desperate need of a makeover, having traded for over five decades on the now somewhat jaded James Bond image. Where in the late fifties Aston Martin was a Le Mans winner and points-scoring F1 competitor, the Red Bull RB15 which brand’s ‘wing’ logo appears on is powered by Honda.
A commonly overlooked detail is that Mercedes-Benz holds a 5% shareholding in Aston Martin through
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