F1 team to be ‘foundation’ of Aston Martin strategy

Racing Point owner Lawrence Stroll says the Aston Martin works F1 team will be the “foundation” of the company’s new strategy.

As part of the stake which Stroll bought in the luxury car brand back in January, his Racing Point team will become Aston Martin as of the 2021 season.

Stroll will soon take on the role of executive chairman at Aston Martin Lagonda, and he made it clear just how crucial the F1 team will be to the company’s strategy moving forward.

Speaking in a video that replaced a planned at event at the postponed Geneva Motor Show, he said: “As executive chairman I will ultimately be responsible for the strategy we are implementing.

“The foundation of the strategy is returning Aston Martin to a works F1 team on the grid for 2021, operating under its own brand, enabling it to reach cumulative audiences of two billion people a year, and to engage and entertain our customers at 22 locations.

“It’s very exciting for all the parties, and should underpin the building of our brand globally, and allow us to achieve our ambition that Aston Martin will become a pre-eminent luxury goods brand globally.

“I think it’s much more than promoting the mid-engine range, I think it has a halo effect and trickledown effect on the company as a whole.

“It gives us the chance to meet and greet our customers, show them our new models, and get them to experience what a weekend’s like for the world of Aston Martin.”

Stroll sure knows his stuff when it comes to Aston Martin’s legacy in motor sport, making reference to Lionel Aston’s hillclimbing efforts before WW1, and he wants the company to embrace their history.

“Being a racer at heart, the DNA of this company that always attracted me to Aston Martin was when in 1913 Lionel Martin drove up Aston Hill. That is what this company is all about,” he explained.

“It’s about its racing heritage, its racing history, that then helped through those technologies to develop these great cars.

“I feel Aston has really missed having a mid-engine programme, having that DNA in their blood.

“And now with the opportunity of returning to a works F1 team in ’21, to be able to share technology from our F1 team with our road car projects, I think this is the final cherry on the cake that Aston Martin needed to complete its range, and come back to its roots of racing.”

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