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Mercedes Formula One boss Toto Wolff has purchased a reported £37m stake in British sportscar maker Aston Martin, whose executive chairman Lawrence Stroll runs the Racing Point F1 team, according to company filings.
A Mercedes F1 spokesman said Wolff’s move was purely an investment on the Austrian’s part and would be diluted by a rights issue on Monday from 4.77 per cent to less than 1 per cent.
“Fully diluted following the pending rights issue, this investment will represent a 0.95 per cent stake in the company,” he added.
“It is a financial investment and Toto’s partnership and executive role with Mercedes are unaffected by the transaction.”
Swiss billionaire Ernesto Bertarelli has also bought a 3.38 per cent stake which will be similarly diluted.
Wolff previously had a 16 per cent shareholding in former champions Williams but sold that after he joined the Mercedes team, where he serves as principal and owns 30 per cent.
Canadian billionaire Stroll, whose son Lance drives for Racing Point alongside Mexican Sergio Perez, is close to Wolff. The Silverstone-based team – to be renamed Aston Martin next year – use Mercedes engines and gearboxes.
Mercedes-Benz’s parent Daimler also has a small stake in Aston Martin.
“It’s clear that Aston are now Mercedes’ B team,” the Daily Mail quoted one Formula One insider as saying.
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1/21 F1 2020
The Formula One grid shows just two changes from the Class of 19, meaning there will be a fair few familiar faces returning next season. Here's how the grid lines up.
REUTERS
2/21 Mercedes – Lewis Hamilton (No 44)
Heads into his 14th season in F1 as a newly-crowned six-time world champion and is showing no signs of allowing his stranglehold on the sport to ease. Will once again be the man to beat, but his future could well prove the biggest talking point in 2020.
AFP via Getty Images
3/21 Mercedes – Valtteri Bottas (77)
Bottas comfortably made second place his own in 2019 but he still needs to find an extra gear or two if he is going to really challenge his teammate. Whether or not his divorce affected him mentally throughout the season only he will know, but a more focused and driven Valtteri Bottas could arrive on the grid next season if his distractions are out of his mind.
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4/21 Ferrari – Charles Leclerc (16)
Based on results in 2019 the Ferrari No 2 should step up and become the Ferrari No 1, but will that actually happen? Regardless, Leclerc impressed immensely in qualifying last season, taking five pole positions including four in a row, and he finally found himself on the top step of the podium in a sign of things to come.
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5/21 Ferrari – Sebastian Vettel (5)
Perhaps the most under-pressure driver in the sport in 2020, Vettel knows another year of failing to meet the grade will almost certainly end his time with Ferrari, particularly with so many good drivers on the market in 2021. Vettel showed signs of the fire within him still burning with his win in Singapore, but much more will be expected from the four-time world champion.
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6/21 Red Bull – Max Verstappen (33)
A year wiser and with a car that improved rapidly as the season wore on, Verstappen could prove the biggest challenge to Hamilton and Mercedes in 2020 if Red Bull can find that top level consistency they crave. Verstappen is also out of contract next year and will be as sought-after as Hamilton, and a season-long duel between the two would spice up that uncertainty no end.
Getty Images
7/21 Red Bull – Alexander Albon (23)
Has convinced Red Bull enough in his half a season with the team to bag himself the second seat with the team for next year, or at least for the start of it. Looked a calm head on talented shoulders in 2019 and should have had a deserved podium in Brazil had it not been for Hamilton’s rash overtake attempt, but now he will have to start closing the gap to Verstappen if he is to secure a long-term future.
Getty Images
8/21 McLaren – Carlos Sainz (55)
The ‘best of the rest’ last season will hope to build on the late podium that he secured in Brazil that ended McLaren’s long five-year drought, with aspirations that the British team will be looking up at the top three rather than down over their shoulder.
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9/21
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10/21
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11/21
AFP via Getty Images
12/21
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13/21
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14/21
EPA
15/21
Getty Images
16/21
REUTERS
17/21
REUTERS
18/21
REUTERS
19/21
Getty Images
20/21
Getty Images
21/21
REUTERS
1/21 F1 2020
The Formula One grid shows just two changes from the Class of 19, meaning there will be a fair few familiar faces returning next season. Here's how the grid lines up.
REUTERS
2/21 Mercedes – Lewis Hamilton (No 44)
Heads into his 14th season in F1 as a newly-crowned six-time world champion and is showing no signs of allowing his stranglehold on the sport to ease. Will once again be the man to beat, but his future could well prove the biggest talking point in 2020.
AFP via Getty Images
3/21 Mercedes – Valtteri Bottas (77)
Bottas comfortably made second place his own in 2019 but he still needs to find an extra gear or two if he is going to really challenge his teammate. Whether or not his divorce affected him mentally throughout the season only he will know, but a more focused and driven Valtteri Bottas could arrive on the grid next season if his distractions are out of his mind.
Getty Images
4/21 Ferrari – Charles Leclerc (16)
Based on results in 2019 the Ferrari No 2 should step up and become the Ferrari No 1, but will that actually happen? Regardless, Leclerc impressed immensely in qualifying last season, taking five pole positions including four in a row, and he finally found himself on the top step of the podium in a sign of things to come.
Getty Images
5/21 Ferrari – Sebastian Vettel (5)
Perhaps the most under-pressure driver in the sport in 2020, Vettel knows another year of failing to meet the grade will almost certainly end his time with Ferrari, particularly with so many good drivers on the market in 2021. Vettel showed signs of the fire within him still burning with his win in Singapore, but much more will be expected from the four-time world champion.
Getty Images
6/21 Red Bull – Max Verstappen (33)
A year wiser and with a car that improved rapidly as the season wore on, Verstappen could prove the biggest challenge to Hamilton and Mercedes in 2020 if Red Bull can find that top level consistency they crave. Verstappen is also out of contract next year and will be as sought-after as Hamilton, and a season-long duel between the two would spice up that uncertainty no end.
Getty Images
7/21 Red Bull – Alexander Albon (23)
Has convinced Red Bull enough in his half a season with the team to bag himself the second seat with the team for next year, or at least for the start of it. Looked a calm head on talented shoulders in 2019 and should have had a deserved podium in Brazil had it not been for Hamilton’s rash overtake attempt, but now he will have to start closing the gap to Verstappen if he is to secure a long-term future.
Getty Images
8/21 McLaren – Carlos Sainz (55)
The ‘best of the rest’ last season will hope to build on the late podium that he secured in Brazil that ended McLaren’s long five-year drought, with aspirations that the British team will be looking up at the top three rather than down over their shoulder.
Getty Images
9/21
Getty Images
10/21
Getty Images
11/21
AFP via Getty Images
12/21
Getty Images
13/21
Getty Images
14/21
EPA
15/21
Getty Images
16/21
REUTERS
17/21
REUTERS
18/21
REUTERS
19/21
Getty Images
20/21
Getty Images
21/21
REUTERS
Wolff’s future at Mercedes has been the subject of some media speculation, with the 48-year-old linked variously to senior management roles with Liberty Media-owned Formula One and at Aston Martin.
His Aston Martin shares were bought from Yew Tree Overseas Limited, a vehicle controlled by Stroll who acquired a roughly 25 per cent holding in Aston Martin with a consortium of investors.
Mercedes have won the past six Formula One drivers’ and constructors’ titles but have six times world champion Lewis Hamilton out of contract at the end of the 2020 season, which has yet to start due to the Covid-19 pandemic.
Hamilton, who has also been linked to Ferrari, had told reporters before the global crisis changed the sporting and financial landscape that his decision would depend on Wolff’s plans.
The Briton is now expected to stay at Mercedes, with a radical overhaul of Formula One’s sporting and technical regulations postponed to 2022.
Reuters