The future of Aston Martin has come under speculation recently, with reports claiming that Lawrence Stroll is looking for an exit from the British team. The rumors surfaced after Stroll sold a minority stake in the team to Arctos Partners, a private equity firm from the US, for a valuation of around $1.2 Billion.
However, despite all the reports claiming that Stroll is looking for a way out, Aston Martin F1’s Managing Director Jeff Slack has come forward to claim that Stroll is here to stay. He said, “Lawrence is fully committed; he’s not going anywhere.”
Aston Martin F1 Managing Director Jeff Slack tells https://t.co/wBvTAwTWVT that Lawrence Stroll has no intention of withdrawing from F1: “Lawrence is fully committed, he’s not going anywhere. It’s not just the team, but he’s got this thing called Aston Martin Lagonda, which…”
— Junaid #JB17 (@JunaidSamodien_) November 22, 2023
Slack further commented, “It’s not just the team, but he’s got this thing called Aston Martin Lagonda, which is a pretty important part of his life.” He explained that Stroll is an extremely wealthy man; therefore he wouldn’t be thinking about selling off his team just for the sake of capital.
About the recent sale of the minority stake to Arctos, Slack claims that the US firm would only be able to buy minority shares without being able to take control over the operations of the team. And if Stroll does want to hand over the team to someone else and leave, Arctos would be the last option for him.
Previous rumors about a possible Lawrence Stroll exit
This is not the first time a potential Stroll exit has been talked about. The speculations started back when the Canadian Billionaire decided to sell off a part of his team to Chinese carmaker Geely.
The transaction happened in May when Stroll offloaded 34.9 million shares of his company to Geely for $145,000,000. As per reports by BusinessF1, the sale was a result of Aston Martin Lagonda suffering losses of over $147,000,000, which apparently prompted Stroll to look for an exit.
Today Lawrence Stroll sold 34.9 million shares for GBP117.0 million at GBP3.35 per share from Aston Martin Lagonda to Geely pic.twitter.com/HrFN3cKLGL
— Aston Martin F1 updates (@startonpole) May 30, 2023
However, the 2023 season has already neared its end, and none of the rumors have materialized. And as per Slack, they wouldn’t – because Stroll is extremely passionate about the whole Aston Martin project, too much to be able to give it up to someone else.
With the recent surge in form and the numerous podiums claimed by Fernando Alonso, Aston Martin Racing is surely in an extremely attractive position for investors to look for acquisition options. However, after rescuing the team back in 2020 and helping them fight their way up the grid, it is unlikely that Stroll would be ready to give things up now.
