Aston Martin owner Stroll vows 'no retreat from F1' as 'money talks'

Aston Martin owner Lawrence Stroll is adamant he has no intention of staging a "retreat" from F1 given the considerable investment he is making in the team.

Three years on from saving Force India from administration, Stroll is now pushing ahead with plans to build a new factory, wind tunnel and simulator at a cost of between £150-200million.

The days of the team incessantly changing hands - given its former guises as Jordan, Spyker, Midland and Force India - appear to be behind it.

“This is a long-term investment," insisted Stroll. "No offence to any of my predecessors, none of them have my history or track record of the success that I have had.

“I’m clearly passionate about this. This is a great business opportunity. I see Formula 1 as a business value of each individual team significantly appreciating in the years to come, not any different than any other sports assets.

“If you look at a football club or an NFL football team, 10 years ago it was a billion dollars. Today you can’t buy a franchise for less than four or five billion dollars.

“So this is a long-term plan. This is something I plan on being involved with for many, many years to come.

“You don’t make this kind of investment to plan to retreat in any way, shape or form.”

At a time when F1 is trying to cut its cloth accordingly, and in a budget cap era, Stroll is bucking the trend by investing heavily in a bid to fulfil his ambition of seeing the team become champions in a few years' time.

Asked as to how much money will continue to talk in F1 over the coming years, he replied: "Money always talks very loud. It will continue to.

"We all know about the budget cap, we are also all very realistic of all the exclusions not included in the budget cap.

"For us, this campus was long overdue. Covid cost us two years, otherwise, we would already be close to completion."

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