LONDON – British luxury carmaker Aston Martin launched a new Formula 1 car on Wednesday ahead of its return to the world’s most famous motor racing event.
The Aston Martin Cognizant F1 team unveiled the “AMR21” car at a virtual event that aired from London. AMR21 will compete in the 2021 Formula One World Championship, which starts on March 28 in Bahrain.
Formula 1 is seen by millions of fans around the world and everyone, from Ferrari to BMW and Mercedes, has used the sport to promote the strength of its brand.
The Aston Martin 2021 F1 challenger: the AMR21.
Source: Aston Martin
Aston Martin has been struggling economically and the price of its stock on the London Stock Exchange fell sharply in 2020. The company expects Formula 1 to increase sales of Aston Martin vehicles such as the DB11, Vanquish and Vantage.
“Having a platform like Formula 1 to market our initiatives, showcase our technology, and ultimately bring that technology to our road cars … is a big game changer,” said Lawrence Stroll, chief executive of Aston Martin, and added that it is a monumental “moment”.
Stroll acquired the Formula 1 team two and a half years ago and became Aston Martin’s chief executive last April, with the company’s majority stake in the process.
“The first step was to increase funding for the realization of our business plan over the next five years,” she told CNBC’s Julianna Tatelbaum. “We raised $ 800 million in equity, with most of it coming from me and my consortium. That was a business plan that would take us to 10,000 cars, $ 2 billion in volume, and $ 500 million in Ebitda. in the next four years “
Stroll said Aston Martin has a fantastic order book for its sports cars and the new DBX, which is Aston Martin’s first SUV. He added that variants of the DBX will come in the near future and that a hybrid will be launched in the fourth quarter of 2021.
The last Aston Martin Grand Prix car was the DBR5, which was driven by Roy Salvadori and Maurice Trintignant at the 1960 British Grand Prix.
The Aston Martin 2021 F1 challenger: the AMR21.
Source: Aston Martin
The new car will be driven by German Sebastian Vettel and Canadian Lance Stroll.
“Although I have raced for four Formula One teams and for many years, starting a new season with a new team gives me a sense of excitement,” Vettel said in a statement.
“I’ve always looked at the competition and this team has constantly impressed me with what they’ve been able to do without the biggest budget.”
Vettel said he was immediately motivated to join the team when Stroll approached him and Otmar Szafnauer, the CEO of the Aston Martin Formula 1 team.
The AMR21 will debut on track on Thursday before traveling to Bahrain next week before the Bahrain Grand Prix.
The team’s main sponsor is IT giant Cognizant. Other sponsors are brewer Peroni, cryptocurrency website Crypto.com and cybersecurity firm SentinelOne.
Owned by Liberty Media, Formula 1 revenue received a hit of $ 877 million last year, falling 43% as a result of the Covid-19 pandemic.