F1 2020

[FaultyMario]

Canadian fashion magnate and boss of Silverstone-based Racing Point F1 Team Lawrence Stroll has taken the first steps towards acquiring a share of Aston Martin Lagonda (AML), the troubled luxury sports car manufacturer. The deal takes the form of an in initial bridging loan worth £55.5m, ultimately to be converted into an equity stake of up to 20%.

[...]

Although various outlets have alluded to a late Thursday board decision between Stroll’s group and automotive conglomerate Geely, RaceFans understands that interest from the Chinese carmaker waned earlier, and an outline agreement was reached with Stroll’s consortium on Wednesday, and Thursday was spent sorting regulatory and legal formalities.

This is borne out by AML’s statement on voting rights issued at noon yesterday, and the formal announcement at 7am Friday via the London Stock Exchange’s website. Given the legalities, such matters are not decided overnight. Indeed, Palmer would not comment on when the deal was eventually struck.

According to various insiders, AML’s situation was precarious. The company faced three choices: accept an injection of capital, draw down on a US loan facility at punitive rates, or face a severe cash-flow crunch which could have seen it unable to meet short-term obligations and potentially plunge into administration, a situation the company has regularly faced in its 113-year history.

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[Blerpa]

Williams will officially launch its car the 17th of February at 9am CET... with a set of photos.
There won't be any ceremony or unveiling of the car.

[Alan P]

I don't believe he has control of Aston Martin, he just is an investor in the company, most of the ownership of the brand comes from the Middle East. I believe the stipulation for Stroll's investment is that Aston Martin had to sponsor his F1 team.

Unfortunately I think this is going to be an unnecessary distraction for Aston Martin, as this disrupts their efforts with Red Bull Racing with which they are co-developing the Valkyrie and their new WEC/Le Mans hypercar program for 2021. On the plus side, Aston Martin has already abandoned the silly DTM program, so that frees up some money and development cost.

I just worry with seeing in Aston Martin a lot of the signs of Lotus from a few years ago, where they were putting their hands in every sport without any real production cars coming down the line and the company dwindled from all that investment with no return.

They're putting all their eggs into the DBX SUV basket. They already have 5k orders they've said but they need 10x that.

[FaultyMario]

You guys sure that... Mmm... Kimi and Connie didn't... Nevermind.

[Crazed_Insanity]

[Blerpa]

So it begins.
New Haas F1 Team VF-20.

haas-f1-team-vf-20-1.jpg

haas-f1-team-vf-20-1.jpg

[FaultyMario]

Black > Gunmetal.

I approve.

[Alan P]

I quite like that. Some bright lightness to the grid.

[Crazed_Insanity]

Would be a great color scheme for Kmart..., too bad it's going bankrupt now...

BTW, I found out on google that "the biggest-paying third party sponsors of Haas were watch maker Richard Mille and clothing brand Jack & Jones. They each paid an estimated $5 million and the remaining external brands together paid even less than that."

So they got $10+ million worth of sponsorship money. Didn't realize F-1 racing is that cheap!?!?!?

Why are there no US companies willing to sponsor them?

[JoeW]

They are too busy sponsoring nascar.