Racing Point is to be rebranded as Aston Martin in 2021 after Lawrence Stroll agreed a £182m investment deal on Friday.
The famous British carmaker has been struggling financially over the past year with rising debt and limited cash flow, something that has seen its share price slump 60 per cent since debuting on the London Stock Exchange.
News of Stroll’s interest in Aston Martin first broke last month before it later emerged a deal was close while talks were also taking place with Chinese carmaker Geely.
On Friday, however, a filing at the LSE confirmed the Canadian had purchased a 16.7 per cent stake in the company for £182m.
“On completion of the £500m of fundraising I look forward to working with the board and management team in Aston Martin Lagonda to review and improve each aspect of the company’s operations and marketing; to continue to invest in the development of new models and technologies and to start to rebalance production to prioritise demand oversupply,” Stroll commented.
“I, and my partners, firmly believe that Aston Martin is one of the great global luxury car brands.
“I believe that this combination of capital and my experience of both the motor industry and building highly successful global brands will mean that, over time, we fulfil Aston Martin Lagonda’s potential.”
As part of the deal, Racing Point, which Stroll took over in 2018, will become an Aston Martin works team for an initial period of 10 years with a title sponsorship deal running for the first four with the option to extend.
To facilitate this, Red Bull has agreed to end their own title sponsorship deal with Aston Martin after 2020 but a technical partnership between the two on the Valkyrie hypercar will continue until all units are delivered.
In a statement, the team also confirmed: “Red Bull Racing has agreed to release Aston Martin from its Formula 1 exclusivity clause which in turn has allowed it to generate the necessary investment required to re-finance and pursue alternative opportunities within the sport.”
This news also squashes a previous rumour which suggested Stroll was in talks with Mercedes boss Toto Wolff over a takeover which would have seen the Brackley-based squad rebranded as Aston Martin if the German manufacturer had pulled out of F1 at the end of this year.
However, Mercedes is expected to continue their partnership with Racing Point into the Aston Martin era.