Since being acquired by Lawrence Stroll, Aston Martin have joined the big boys F1 league. The Silverstone based team under previous ownership had cultivated the image of the ‘plucky’ underdog, pulling out surprise results on a budget far below that of the giants of the sport.

Having started life as the Jordan F1 team back in 1991, Aston Martin have been through a number of iterations even having four name changes in the four years between 2005-2008, before finally the team were bought by Indian businessman Vijay Mallya.

 

 

 

Birth of modern Aston Martin F1

The team was renamed Force India for the 2008 season and enjoyed moderate success in its ten and a half years under this identity. The zenith of the Silverstone team’s achievements during that era was claiming pole position at the 2009 Belgian GP through Fisichella along with 6 podium finishes and a fourth in the constructors’ title race in 2016 and 2017.

During 2018 as a result of financial difficulties encountered by owner Mallya, the team was placed into administration. Force India’s assets were then purchased by a consortium led by Lawrence Stroll becoming Racing Point for the 2019 season.

At the Sakhir Grand Prix in 2020, Sergio Perez gave the team their first ever win since the Jordon days at the 2003 Brazilian Grand Prix then for the 2021 season the team was rebranded Aston Martin. This saw the start of an ambitious $200m investment programme in the Silverstone facilities and the team have now occupied their all new 400,000 sq ft factory which features three interconnected buildings over a 40 acre site.

In are new simulation and CFD tools together with a state of the art wind tunnel and brand new production facilities. As the first building neared completion last season, team owner Lawrence Stroll outlined his vision for the future.

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Goal to win championships

“I said a couple of years back, we are on a five year journey to be fighting for World Championships. I met a lot of doubters when I said that and I can understand that given our position when I said that.” 

“I’ve made, we’ve made significant changes. We have the greatest state of the art facility that we don’t move into until May 1st, so the success of this year can’t be contributed to this.”

Stroll talked of his five year plan to get Aston Martin competing for titles and the signing of double world champion Fernando Alonso was a crucial step along the way. Yet at the heart of the Aston Martin project is the son of the billionaire owner who is regularly criticised for failing to contribute enough to the team’s efforts.

There was even talk last year of Stroll not wanting to drive in F1 and preferring a career in tennis instead, an idea team principal Mike Krack was quick to dismiss when asked about Lance’s future after a poor showing in China. 

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Team refuse to criticise Lance

“Aston Martin is Lance’s home,” he said. “We know that and the whole project has always been around him. So we look for continuity. I’ve always that that is very important. So we will see in the next weeks.”

Sky F1’s veteran commentator, David Croft, questioned whether the team’s defence of Lance’s silly crash under the safety car is because the team fear losing their billionaire owner.

“This is almost like, ‘We’re going to back Lance because we want him to stay with the team’,” said the Sky commentator.

Fernando Alonso has always had Lance’s back, claiming he is a future F1 world champion in the making. And in terms of the motivation for Lawrence owning the team, Fernando is clear this is no ‘dads and lads’ venture into sport and that the Canadian is a passionate motorsports fan.

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Alonso speaks of “unprecedented” transformation

“He’s a great man, great boss and a great owner of the brand,” the Spaniard told Channel 4. “I think at the end Lawrence is a racer, one of us, and loves motor racing, loves cars.”

“I think what he has done with this team is just probably unprecedented. Taking it from Racing Point, Force India, and taking everything to the highest level possible. And now we are fighting with Ferrari, Mercedes, McLaren and Red Bull.

“So to have leading the project someone that loves racing is very rewarding for everyone.”

But of course Fernando would talk up his boss given he holds the keys to the continued F1 career the 42 year old is pursuing. Since joining Aston Martin last season, the double world champion has taken a number of opportunities to talk up his junior team mate and in China Alonso gave us his latest insight.

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Lance “more sensitive”

Alonso claimed Lance was vital to the team because he had “sensitivities” Fernando no longer possesses. 

“Lance and myself, we are trying to help the team as much as we can,” he said. “I think we have two different driving styles in some conditions, we have two different feelings with the car.

“I think Lance is a lot more sensitive to things than what I am, which is very important for the team. I think the analysis that Lance can reach and can feed back to the team is crucial to us and to improve the car.”

Alonso’s praise of Lance is something of a back handed compliment. In other words Fernando on auto pilot drives around any problem he encounters with the car, while Lance is clearly too “sensitive” to do the same. 

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Lance set to be retained

“I’m a little bit un-sensitive to things sometimes and this is not a good thing,” Alonso added. “We are both trying to help Aston as much as we can and I think the direction that we develop the car and we normally finalise the set-ups on a weekend and it’s exactly the same.

“So, we arrive at the same conclusions, maybe in a different way, and I think those two different styles are just a good thing for Aston.”

Fernando explains his natural ability allows him to jump into any car and deliver a 90% performance. “But to reach 100 per cent of the potential of the car, sometimes I’m not able to do [that] without sometimes the help from my team-mate on special details on the set-up or balance problems here and there.”

Of course nobody really believes Alonso when he’s blowing smoke up his team mate’s rear quarters but for those F1 fans hoping Aston Martin would recruit a proper driver any time soon – it seems that won’t be happening in the foreseeable future.

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USA with less than 2% F1 TV audienc

Liberty Media has made much of how it is developing Formula One since acquiring the commercial rights to the sport back in 2017. The popular Netflix series ‘Drive to Survive’ has been a hit in North America and is lauded as the key to F1 ‘cracking’ the USA market.

Yet the reality is despite the increased popularity in F1, the base of TV fans was so low citing percentage growth is somewhat of a nonsense. The 2022 F1 season saw the high watermark in terms of US TV viewers where the average audience for each race was 1.21 million. Now numbers coming from the network would suggest the fall of 10% for the 2023 season is now accelerating in 2024… READ MORE