Ex-Ferrari boss makes huge investment into Lawrence Stroll’s Aston Martin – report

Luca di Montezemolo, the former Ferrari chairman, has reportedly invested a multi-million sum into Lawrence Stroll-owned Aston Martin in a surprising development.

A report byBusinessF1claims the Italian – who oversaw Ferrari’s F1 operations over four decades until 2014 – has invested $4million into the British car company and believes Aston Martin to be on course to equal Ferrari’s current valuation of $35billion. Aston Martin is currently valued at just over $1b on the stock market.

Di Montezemolo and Stroll are said to have a long-standing relationship stretching back to the days when Tommy Hilfiger – the clothing company where Stroll was once a major investor – had a sponsorship arrangement with the Ferrari F1 team.

Aston Martin welcome ex-Ferrari chairman on board

The report suggests that his faith in Stroll is a key reason behind Di Montezemolo’s willingness to commit such an eye-watering sum to Aston Martin, with the 75-year-old telling associates of his belief that the car manufacturer can increase its share value by five times within a year.

However, Stroll himself is said to be more cautious and wary of overpromising and underdelivering, mindful that Aston Martin are not yet in a position to grow at such a rapid rate.

A report last month claimed that Aston Martin continue to lose $1.5m per day despite Stroll’s best efforts to turn the situation around, having identified an oversupply issue forcing the company to sell cars at massive discounts.

漫步的反应是停止生产的cars for a full calendar year with Aston Martin only producing cars for customer orders, which he claimed resulted in a 50 per cent increase in the average sale price.

In May, Stroll sold £117m of his shares in Aston Martin to Chinese car maker Geely, which also has ties to Mercedes-Benz and Volvo.

Stroll has been heavily involved in F1 since 2017 when his son Lance made his grand prix debut with the legendary Williams outfit, but the team’s declining performance on track saw the pair look elsewhere.

When the Force India team went into administration in 2018, Stroll rescued the team and rebranded it as Racing Point for the following season with his son soon moving across from Williams.

In January 2020, Stroll was at the head of a consortium that invested £182m into Aston Martin in exchange for a 16.7 per cent stake and was installed as the car company’s executive chairman.

PlanetF1.com建议

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Stroll went on to rebrand his F1 team as Aston Martin from the start of the 2021 season and, following the construction of a state-of-the-art new factory, has made no secret of his determination to emerge as a title-winning force.

Following the signing of two-time World Champion Fernando Alonso over the winter, Aston Martin finished on the podium at six of the first eight races of the 2023 season as the team aim to beat Ferrari and Mercedes to second spot in theConstructors’ standingsbehind the dominant Red Bull outfit.

Ahead of the Monaco GP in late May, Aston Martin announced they will join forces with Honda in time for F1’s next rules reset in 2026 in what has been regarded as a key step in Stroll’s Championship ambitions.

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