Canadian billionaire Lawrence Stroll has been one of the main driving forces behind the recent resurgence of Aston Martin. Ever since taking over the Force India F1 team and saving the team from bankruptcy, Stroll has led his team from the front. However, the other side of his job might be taking a hit.
Stroll’s interference saved a plethora of workers from losing their jobs, which only led to increased loyalty from the same workers. Force India re-entered Formula 1 as Racing Point.
Racing Point slowly made its way towards the top of the grid. They had their best season in 2020 with Sergio Perez and Lance Stroll, Lawrence’s son as their drivers. The Silverstone outfit won their first-ever race, the Sakhir Grand Prix, that season and also managed to finish P4 in the Constructors’ Championship.
Lawrence Stroll took another drastic step toward the improvement of the team when he decided to lead a consortium of investors and invested in the Aston Martin group, in return for 16.7% of the company. Following this, Racing Point was rebranded to Aston Martin, the name under which the team are participating in F1 since 2021.
Aston Martin is not profitable as a company
Despite the brilliant performance in Formula 1, motorsports magazine BusinessF1 has claimed that Aston Martin is struggling as a car manufacturer. Lawrence Stroll recently revealed that before he took charge of the brand, they were not really operating in the most optimal way. There was an oversupply of cars which led to the company providing discounts to make sure that their cars sell.
All of this led to Lawrence Stroll taking the decision to stop the production of cars for a whole year. As of now, the brand produces cars only for customer orders. According to Stroll, this has led to an incredible turnaround which he referred to as “astonishing numbers in three years.” He claimed that the average sale price of a new car had increased by 50 percent.
This is no mere GT. This is Bolder.
A ballet of ballistic balance, a car of
unapologetic exhilaration.The World’s First Super Tourer.
Discover https://t.co/ej1O8nVUF3#AstonMartin #DB12 #ICONDRIVEN pic.twitter.com/QkHtj7w0XK
— Aston Martin (@astonmartin) June 9, 2023
However, all of this hasn’t been enough. As per BusinessF1, Aston Martin is losing $1,500,000 every single day of the week. This translates to a loss of around $72,000 for every car that is produced by the team. According to a report by The Guardian, the marque suffered losses worth more than $400,000,000 in 2020 and just over $96,000,000 in 2021. If estimates by BusinessF1 are correct, losses for Aston Martin will shoot up to $384,000,000 in 2023.
Lawrence Stroll and his big plans
Lawrence Stroll has always had his priorities straight when it comes to the Formula 1 department. He wants to lead Aston Martin to the top of Formula 1. In a recent move that made headlines, Aston Martin has made a deal with Honda that will see the Japanese company make engines for Aston Martin from the 2026 season.
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, Stroll has also made some moves recently that have raised questions among F1 fans. The Billionaire recently offloaded $145,000,000 worth of his shares in the company to the Chinese company Geely. This has led to speculations about a potential departure of Stroll in the near future. However, as of now, the deal has had no direct effect on the functioning of the Aston Martin F1 team.
