2025 Aston Martin | Aramco F1 Team

[Farnborough]

Joe Saward, who was in Saudi Arabia, says in his notebook the latest idea is for the country to acquire an F1 team and the obvious choice is Aston Martin.

Doesn't sound like the kind of thing countries do.

Usually it means acquisition by "Sovereign wealth fund" the investment arm of that country in taking interest of particularly targeted assets in long term strategy for them.

McL is already significantly of that order for Bahrain as I understand it.

SA investment (through that route) is well established within high profile sport in quite diverse portfolio.

[Nikosar]

Joe Saward, who was in Saudi Arabia, says in his notebook the latest idea is for the country to acquire an F1 team and the obvious choice is Aston Martin.

Saudi Arabia’s Public Investment Fund used to have a stake in McLaren’s F1 team but sold it off to Bahrain’s state fund.
They’ve made it pretty clear a few times that they’re still keen to buy into F1 again, but only if it’s the right team, one that can actually win.

At one point, Alpine looked like the obvious target with 24% stake, but now all the talk is around Aston Martin.
Sky Sports even floated the idea a while back that Toto Wolff could sell his stake in Mercedes, but nothing really came of that.

If PIF does move in on Aston Martin, it could seriously put Lance Stroll’s seat at risk, the driver around whom the entire project revolves.

[peewon]

Joe Saward, who was in Saudi Arabia, says in his notebook the latest idea is for the country to acquire an F1 team and the obvious choice is Aston Martin.

Saudi Arabia’s Public Investment Fund used to have a stake in McLaren’s F1 team but sold it off to Bahrain’s state fund.
They’ve made it pretty clear a few times that they’re still keen to buy into F1 again, but only if it’s the right team, one that can actually win.

At one point, Alpine looked like the obvious target with 24% stake, but now all the talk is around Aston Martin.
Sky Sports even floated the idea a while back that Toto Wolff could sell his stake in Mercedes, but nothing really came of that.

If PIF does move in on Aston Martin, it could seriously put Lance Stroll’s seat at risk, the driver around whom the entire project revolves.

I think Lawrence will only sell the team when he knows it over for Lance. I think he still believes that under the new regs its possible for AM to become a dominant team and maybe Lance can have a shot at some race wins. If that doesnt happen who knows. But currently its the only part of his automotive business thats making money. He could also divest a lot of his stake but keep a small percentage along with ensuring the team name remains AM.

[diffuser]

Joe Saward, who was in Saudi Arabia, says in his notebook the latest idea is for the country to acquire an F1 team and the obvious choice is Aston Martin.

Saudi Arabia’s Public Investment Fund used to have a stake in McLaren’s F1 team but sold it off to Bahrain’s state fund.
They’ve made it pretty clear a few times that they’re still keen to buy into F1 again, but only if it’s the right team, one that can actually win.

At one point, Alpine looked like the obvious target with 24% stake, but now all the talk is around Aston Martin.
Sky Sports even floated the idea a while back that Toto Wolff could sell his stake in Mercedes, but nothing really came of that.

If PIF does move in on Aston Martin, it could seriously put Lance Stroll’s seat at risk, the driver around whom the entire project revolves.

You make it sound like he could attack it...hostile take over.

Has anyone thought of what happens to AM F1 if they lose Lawrence?

[TyreSlip]

Joe Saward, who was in Saudi Arabia, says in his notebook the latest idea is for the country to acquire an F1 team and the obvious choice is Aston Martin.

Saudi Arabia’s Public Investment Fund used to have a stake in McLaren’s F1 team but sold it off to Bahrain’s state fund.
They’ve made it pretty clear a few times that they’re still keen to buy into F1 again, but only if it’s the right team, one that can actually win.

At one point, Alpine looked like the obvious target with 24% stake, but now all the talk is around Aston Martin.
Sky Sports even floated the idea a while back that Toto Wolff could sell his stake in Mercedes, but nothing really came of that.

If PIF does move in on Aston Martin, it could seriously put Lance Stroll’s seat at risk, the driver around whom the entire project revolves.

You make it sound like he could attack it...hostile take over.

Has anyone thought of what happens to AM F1 if they lose Lawrence?

As long as Lawrence is the majority shareholder, there will be no hostile takeover.

[Nikosar]

Joe Saward, who was in Saudi Arabia, says in his notebook the latest idea is for the country to acquire an F1 team and the obvious choice is Aston Martin.

Saudi Arabia’s Public Investment Fund used to have a stake in McLaren’s F1 team but sold it off to Bahrain’s state fund.
They’ve made it pretty clear a few times that they’re still keen to buy into F1 again, but only if it’s the right team, one that can actually win.

At one point, Alpine looked like the obvious target with 24% stake, but now all the talk is around Aston Martin.
Sky Sports even floated the idea a while back that Toto Wolff could sell his stake in Mercedes, but nothing really came of that.

If PIF does move in on Aston Martin, it could seriously put Lance Stroll’s seat at risk, the driver around whom the entire project revolves.

You make it sound like he could attack it...hostile take over.

Has anyone thought of what happens to AM F1 if they lose Lawrence?

Why do you see a hostile takeover for the team ? It will be business as usual. Nothing happened to Mclaren F1 under Bahrain's ownership.

For the moment, Lawrence doesn't seem to have any intention of going down that road.

[diffuser]

Hostile take over is an expression used when one person or a group try to buy up enough shares of a company to change the makeup of the board and take controll of a company. It usually happens when a Company has too much cash on hand. The Group trying the take over are looking to pay themselves all the cash, in that case, but it could be for other reasons.

[Nikosar]

Hostile take over is an expression used when one person or a group try to buy up enough shares of a company to change the makeup of the board and take controll of a company. It usually happens when a Company has too much cash on hand. The Group trying the take over are looking to pay themselves all the cash, in that case, but it could be for other reasons.

You initially used 'attack' and 'hostile' loosely, giving it an emotional tone rather than a technical financial meaning...
In public companies, hostile takeovers typically aim to access cash reserves or assets. In Formula 1, with concentrated ownership, such moves are structurally improbable. Moreover, entities like PIF are not pursuing short-term financial extraction but are following a pattern of investing across global sports assets

[max_speed]

https://fastestpitstop.net/formula-1/he ... hallenger/

<>

Very exciting times. Alonso is finally in the right team at the right time. Second half of 2025 but mainly 2026 is going to be exciting to see him in a car that actually gets faster rather than most of his career where the cars have got progressively worse. Light at the end of the tunnel for once.

if past 2+ years serve anything then i will not be positive at all. Aston is worst team (relatively) consistently going back towards end of grid. apart from $$ and hiring bunch of people they have made 0 impression on any front. i will not be optimistic.

[diffuser]

Hostile take over is an expression used when one person or a group try to buy up enough shares of a company to change the makeup of the board and take controll of a company. It usually happens when a Company has too much cash on hand. The Group trying the take over are looking to pay themselves all the cash, in that case, but it could be for other reasons.

You initially used 'attack' and 'hostile' loosely, giving it an emotional tone rather than a technical financial meaning...
In public companies, hostile takeovers typically aim to access cash reserves or assets. In Formula 1, with concentrated ownership, such moves are structurally improbable. Moreover, entities like PIF are not pursuing short-term financial extraction but are following a pattern of investing across global sports assets

I forgot my "?", I was really asking a question.

[-wkst-]

From what I understand AMR already has a lot of shareholders, but there's a voting pact with Stroll that he can still control the company and the engineers/managers only got B ordinary shares with no voting power (Blandin, Fallows, McCullough, Whitmarsh, Green, Slack,...).

For example the Saudis ("The Public Investment Fund") already own 7,4% of the shares. Racing Point Limited (Stroll) owns about 37% of the shares.

[Farnborough]

Certainly it's not their first go at significant support if anyone remembers this far back

"Saudia Airlines sponsored the Williams F1 team from 1977 to 1984. This sponsorship was part of a broader effort by Saudi Arabia to increase its international visibility, particularly in sports. The Saudia sponsorship was instrumental in Williams' early success, including winning its first Grand Prix and championship titles. "

Not ownership, but very healthy input and promotion at that point. Shifted the balance of success in F1 in that period I feel.

[diffuser]

Back to really important stuff

https://www.formula1.com/en/latest/arti ... BlgBqxqf0G

Team Principal Cowell confirmed that the wind tunnel has been in use since mid-March and is taking on both 2025 and 2026 aerodynamic development, with the first fruits of that labour due to hit the track soon.

“We’ve transitioned to this tunnel, and there’s hardware coming through that we’ll see at the circuit in the coming races,” Cowell explained at the recent Saudi Arabian Grand Prix, with Aston Martin previously using engine supplier Mercedes’ wind tunnel.

“We’ve transitioned to this tunnel, and there’s hardware coming through that we’ll see at the circuit in the coming races,” Cowell explained at the recent Saudi Arabian Grand Prix, with Aston Martin previously using engine supplier Mercedes’ wind tunnel.

“People often talk about how to tell the time when you’ve got two watches – how do you tell the aero load when development work has been done in one wind tunnel and then you swap across to the next?

“They’ll never tell you exactly the same, but we are enjoying the new wind tunnel. It’s opened our eyes to a few characteristics. Then you’ve got to do the work. If you’ve got a new test facility that gives you a clearer view, a more representative view, you’ve got to then do aero development work.

“You’ve got to change shapes, make parts, understand, and then make full-size components to bring to the circuit and measure in this complex environment. We’re in that process, enjoying the new tool, and look forward to making a faster race car with it.”

[-wkst-]

And that are the original quotes from Cowell from Saudi Arabia regarding the wind tunnel thing, where "journalists" made the story that the Brackley tunnel gave them wrong numbers. As happened so many times, not what Cowell said or meant, as things are way more complicated in F1.

The hope is rather (I guess) that with this new technologies they installed in the tunnel (which they speak about for quite a while) they indeed have this "clearer and more representative view".

[zoroastar]

https://x.com/AstonMartinF1/status/1915413082618171623