Image by Alistair Staley/LAT
Racing Point to become Aston Martin in 2021 after Stroll investment
Racing Point will become the Aston Martin works team in Formula 1 following major investment from Lawrence Stroll into the British car company.
Stroll has led a consortium that has purchased an initial 16.7% stake in Aston Martin -- investing £182 million ($239m) -- and will become executive chairman, as part of plans to raise an overall £500m ($655m) in emergency funding. As owner of Racing Point, Stroll’s investment will see it become the Aston Martin F1 works team from 2021 onwards on an initial 10-year agreement, in order to further increase the company’s global visibility.
At present Aston Martin is a title sponsor of Red Bull Racing, but it has been confirmed that the deal will come to an end after the coming Formula 1 season.
“Following the Aston Martin Lagonda announcement earlier today, the team can confirm that the manufacturer will remain title partner until the end of the 2020 season but this contract will not be extended past the end of the current term,” a Red Bull statement read.
“Red Bull Racing has agreed to release Aston Martin from its Formula 1 exclusivity clause which in turn has allowed it to generate the necessary investment required to re-finance and pursue alternative opportunities within the sport.
“Red Bull Advanced Technologies will continue to work with Aston Martin in order to deliver the Valkyrie hypercar, with the first cars scheduled for delivery at the end of the year.
“We thank Aston Martin for their support over the past four years in which time we have achieved 12 wins, 50 podiums and six pole positions together. We wish Aston Martin’s employees and shareholders all the best for the future and our focus remains on working together throughout the 2020 season and ending our partnership on a high.”
Waiving the exclusivity deal opens up the potential for Aston Martin branding to appear on the Racing Point this season, even if being turned into the works’ team will not take place until the following year
Stroll purchased the former Force India team after it went into administration during the summer of 2018, renaming it Racing Point with the intention of a different title for the following season. However any potential title partnership deals failed to materialize in time and the team will continue to be known as Racing Point until 2021.
Chris Medland
While studying Sports Journalism at the University of Central Lancashire, Chris managed to talk his way into working at the British Grand Prix in 2008 and was retained for three years before joining ESPN F1 as Assistant Editor. After three further years at ESPN, a spell as F1 Editor at Crash Media Group was followed by the major task of launching F1i.com’s English-language website and running it as Editor. Present at every race since the start of 2014, he has continued building his freelance portfolio, working with international titles. As well as writing for RACER, his broadcast work includes television appearances on F1 TV and as a presenter and reporter on North America's live radio coverage on SiriusXM.
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