Last Updated on January 17 2025, 9:53 am

Aston Martin are making waves in Formula One since the acquisition of the team by Canadian billionaire Lawrence Stroll. Once the struggling mid-field Force India team, Stroll bought them out of receivership before renaming the Silverstone based squad after the iconic British racing marque.

A new $200m facility outside the gates Silverstone has seen the team transformed from its time spent in the old facilities first erected by Eddie Jordan. This year their state of the art wind tunnel will come on stream, in time for the development work on the all new 2026 F1 car design.

As Red Bull entered a mini crisis last year, with their team boss accused of “inappropriate behaviour” towards a female employee, the vultures circled around Max Verstappen. Stroll’s Aston Martin were one of the team’s to make representations to the Dutch F1 champion, who suggested he could leave his current F1 family should Dr. Helmet Marko depart from the Red Bull management.

 

 

 

Big money signings at Aston Martin

Lawrence Stroll has sought to make regular statements about Aston Martin’s intent as evidenced by his recruitment of star drivers alongside his son. Sebastian Vettel was persuaded to join the British Racing Green liveried team, when his time at Ferrari came to an end.

Alonso too jumped at the chance to race for Aston, when Vettel announced his retirement in 2022 and with Stroll Snr having lured Adrian Newey to join the team this season, more big named F1 drivers will be looking on with interest, to see if the most successful F1 car designer of all time as about to take Aston Martin to the front of the grid.

Newey was attracted to Aston Martin with the promise of an annual salary in the region of $30m together with an ownership share int the Silverstone based team. Now reports suggests Max Verstappen could be offered a shattering $240m deal by Lawrence Stroll, in his efforts to build a winning F1 team with the best driver in the world. There are suggestions Max too could receive an equity stake in the Aston Martin team as Lawrence Stroll pulls out all the stops to recruit the best of the best.

The Formula One cost cap does not limit the earnings of the top three individuals in each F1 team and too that end both Newey and Verstappen can be accommodated with eye watering amounts of remuneration. Currently Max has a deal with Red Bull Racing until 2028 when he will be 31 years of age, but the Dutch driver has threatened to quit the sport early should his passion to win become diminished.

Mercedes throws designer under the bus

 

 

 

Commercial director promises sponsors Verstappen

Aston Martin have vigorously denied the reports of such an offer to Max Verstappen although there have been more informal conversations centred around his future involvement in their endurance racing programme. He has expressed a keen interest in competing in the 24 hours of Le Mans and could do so in Aston martin’s hypercar, the Newey designed Valkyrie.

Aston Martin “categorically deny” the rumours of a bank busting offer to Max Verstappen, though behind the scenes tis a very different story. The Daily mail report that confidence is high within the team on capturing the signature of Verstappen, with commercial director Jefferson Slack telling potential sponsors it a matter of time before the quadruple world champion has signed on the dotted line.

Aston Martin’s current driver lineup of Fernando Alonso and Lawrence Stroll are contracted until the end of 2026 when the Spaniard will be 45 years of age. By then the team will have a season behind them with their new 2026 car design and with Honda supplying power units from next year, Max will have visibility over Aston’s likely future success.

As happened in 2014, it could be that F1 is about to enter another era where the engine is the all important performance differentiator, and with Honda committed to joining the programme on parity with the other power unit manufacturers this time, the Japanese auto manufacturer may well come out ahead of Mercedes and Ferrari.

First F1 team livery leaked

 

 

 

Verstappen denies Aston talks

Aston Martin sacked their team principal this week and appointed ex-Mercedes power unit guru, Andy Cowell who will come under pressure from Newey who believes the current driver line up is limited. Jonathan Macavoy of the Daily Mail claims that Newey has spoken his mind on the issue already, fearing Alonso is ‘too old’ and his inevitable decline is imminent.

Newey together with a host of F1 observers also believes Lawrence Stroll ‘is not a good enough driver’ yet whether driver lineup is part of the ex-Red Bull designers remit, is not clear at present. Stroll peaked last year with a P6 in Australia, but failed to score at all in the final eleven rounds of the year.

Verstappen himself has denied the existence of talks to partner him up with Newey at Aston. “No, I haven’t talked about that at all either, just nothing at all,” he claimed to Viaplay. “At the moment I haven’t thought about that at all.”

Cadillac F1’s first driver frustrated

 

 

 

Jos wants Red Bull Racing

However, in a continuance of his long running feud with Christian Horner, Jos Verstappen has questioned his son’s long term future with the Red Bull team. “Red Bull has to build a car that is no longer so difficult to drive,” Verstappen Snr said. “If you look at the second half of 2024, you can’t be optimistic.

“Red Bull has a big task ahead of it in 2025.” When asked if Max’s future was open beyond Red Bull Racing, the ex-F1 Benton driver replied: “Yes, everything is possible. He can stay with Red Bull if he sees a point to it. His goal is to be able to win races.

“If he feels that this is no longer possible at Red Bull, a change is not out of the question.”

Newey’s strong words for Lance Stroll

 

 

 

Hamilton mental fragility questioned

Lewis Hamilton may well be the most successful F1 driver of a time and for some even the GOAT, yet his mental toughness at times has been questionable particularly since losing out to Verstappen in the 2021 drivers’ title race.

In an interview with The Times last autumn, Hamilton opened up about his mental health issues which stemmed from his childhood. He was the son of divorced parents, going racing on a tight budget and claimed to experience bullying at school.

Yet Lewis doesn’t speak from a position of wholeness and healing as he reveals to writer Gavanndra Hodge, “I spoke to one woman, years ago, but that wasn’t really helpful. I would like to find someone today.”…. READ MORE