Under Lawrence Stroll’s reign, Aston Martin is booming in F1. The Canadian billionaire invested around $235 million to acquire the majority stakes in the luxury car company. And at the same time, according to Joe Pompliano, he convinced Toto Wolff, with whom he shares good relations, to invest around $22,000,000 on his life project— Aston Martin, with whom he wants to reign the F1 world.
The investment by Mercedes‘s boss got him almost 1% of the shares in Aston Martin. Though, there was much controversy around the purchase of Wolff, as he was accused of doing inside trading.
But soon, he was given a green chit over it. However, many still called Aston Martin a B-team of Mercedes, as the Silverstone-based team’s predecessor Racing Point was also heavily inspired by W10, Mercedes’ 2019 championship-winning car. So Stroll and Wolff had good relations professionally until the former chose to take another route for his interests.
Amidst partnership, Lawrence Stroll breaks F1 ties
For a long time, it was believed that Mercedes and Aston Martin were strong allies in F1. Besides being their engine customer in the sport, Mercedes also powered their road car projects.
Thus, amidst this setting, Stroll ejected Mercedes’ services in F1. It was recently announced that from 2026 onwards, Aston Martin would run their cars on Honda engines.
BREAKING: Aston Martin 🤝 Honda
From 2026 @AstonMartinF1 will adopt a Honda F1 Power Unit pic.twitter.com/xC0bjLRs8J
— Formula 1 (@F1) May 24, 2023
Publically, both sides have said that the separation between the two F1 teams as customers and engine suppliers doesn’t reflect the credibility of Mercedes’ power units. Wolff said as a competitive, Aston Martin was right to seek services from a company that is not their direct competition. On the other hand, Martin Whitmarsh claimed that they chose Honda because of their recent success with Red Bull and not out of their doubts about Mercedes.
Mercedes still involved in the road car project
Meanwhile, it has been revealed by Wolff himself that the ongoing road car project with Aston Martin would still continue. He claims the project is a long business plan.
Since it doesn’t affect both F1 teams in any way, there is no reason for it to be axed. Though, in the current season, both sides are now battling each other head-to-head for the runner-up spot.
And coming into the next season, where Aston Martin wants to be even better, it would be interesting to see both sides eyeing to give a better challenge to Red Bull.
