Lawrence Stroll says he is taking Aston Martin “back to its roots” with the company’s return as a full factory team in 2021.
Earlier this year, the Canadian agreed a deal to purchase a 16.7 per cent stake in the British company which included a rebranding of his Racing Point team from next season.
That move was swiftly followed by the announcement of Aston Martin’s WEC plans with the Valkyrie had been dropped and now Stroll says their presence in F1 will be an integral part of his plan to revive the brand.
“As executive chairman, I will ultimately be responsible for the strategy we are implementing,” he said in a video message that was released following the postponement of the Geneva Motor Show.
“The foundation of the strategy is returning Aston Martin as a works F1 team on the grid for 2021, operating under its own brand, enabling it to reach cumulative audiences of two billion people a year and to engage and entertain our customers at 22 locations.
“It’s very exciting for all the parties and should underpin the building of our brand globally, and allow us to achieve our ambition that Aston Martin will become a pre-eminent luxury goods brand globally.”
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Stroll’s plan also involves a realignment of Aston Martin’s road car range and he sees F1 as the ideal launchpad for that change.
“I think it’s much more than promoting the mid-engine range, I think it has a halo effect and trickledown effect on the company as a whole.
“It gives us the chance to meet and greet our customers, show them our new models, and get them to experience what a weekend is like for the world of Aston Martin.”
All of this, Stroll continued, was about taking Aston back to what made them famous in the first place when the brand was founded.
“Being a racer at heart, the DNA of this company that always attracted me to Aston Martin was when in 1913 Lionel Martin drove up Aston Hill. That is what this company is all about,” he explained.
“It’s about its racing heritage, its racing history, that then helped through those technologies to develop these great cars.
“I feel Aston has really missed having a mid-engine programme, having that DNA in their blood.
“And now with the opportunity of returning to a works F1 team in ’21, to be able to share technology from our F1 team with our road car projects, I think this is the final cherry on the cake that Aston Martin needed to complete its range, and come back to its roots of racing.”