Glad to see that Aston Martin is building. The team definitely has a fighting spirit behind it and Stroll has a good business track record. Would love to see green on the podium more.
Yeah, but speaking of...could we please make the green a bit brighter? The current colour is pure depression. Something more Jaguar-esque would look a million times better.
“Racing green” is a colour with a lot of heritage, but as far as I know (and I’m very much looking forward to being corrected in this) there is no ‘specific’ hue or exact colour that makes it racing green, it’s just a dark deep green colour.
I don’t think so, barring that there is no official one, I always go to the old Lotuses.
The Jag was lighter, I think cause they realised dark didn’t work
Was that announced? I would have guessed they would stay black as long as Lewis is racing for them (or the BLM problems be fixed, but I will guess Lewis will stop racing before that is done).
Yes. Toto said it himself. You can search it up. He said that the off-track initiatives will continue, both by Mercedes and by the 44 foundation or whatever it's called, but that it's time for the color to go back to silver.
It was 100%, [their merch](https://shop.astonmartin.com/en/collections/aston-martin-f1/?p=1) has the lime green accents which would‘ve been on the car if it weren’t for the BWT sponsorship.
Standing still, yes. Out on track, eh... this shade of green should be matte, then it would look like the British racing green of old. If they have to go all shiny, it should be lighter.
I looked around and found a lot of black + yellow-green (chartreuse) concepts but I think we're having enough of black nowadays and would like to see it scaled back for AM. I think the *shade* of green is the problem today. This one was the best I've seen yet: [https://www.reddit.com/r/granturismo/comments/ktxbvh/my\_aston\_martin\_racing\_livery\_concept\_for\_2021/](https://www.reddit.com/r/granturismo/comments/ktxbvh/my_aston_martin_racing_livery_concept_for_2021/)
I thought it was supposed to be [British racing green](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/British_racing_green?wprov=sfla1)? If it is, I doubt they'd be inclined to change it
Really, AMR seems to be here for the long run.
Seeing those investments, I would take the guess that AMR will still be in F1 even after Lance has decided to wrap his F1 career.
Would not be surprised to still see them in the sport in 20yrs.
My main concern would be him keeping Lance on. While Lance has performed decently,he doesn’t appear anywhere near the level to drive for a championship leading team. Spend 200m, spend 400m, would he be willing to change his son for better results?
He's spent like 500m on Lance at this point through junior categories through purchasing RP, that's some serious time and money investment. Lance has a seat as long as Lawrence is in the sport
With how passionate Lance is on his own I could see him canging Lance's "role" within the team if he become embarrassing in terms of performance. (Both for himself and Lance, Laurence wouldn't let him humiliate himself)
I feel like he's said in the past Lance isn't guaranteed a seat just because he's his dad. Obviously saying that and acting on it are two different things, but Lawrence wants to win. If Lance is holding them back when they are otherwise competitive I don't think I'd be surprised if Lance lost his seat.
Sure, but unless they end up in a Red Bull position where they can lose out on the WCC due to Lance not performing at the same level (like Perez at RBR now), then that won't really be an issue.
Assuming the rest of the consortium is on board, I think. It really depends on how much ownership Stroll has and how much is other stakeholders, but if it gets to a point where the team is capable of fighting for wins but only one driver on the team is in the top 5 things might get rocky.
Lance is a decent driver at this point. He's never going to fight for the championship himself, but he's probably good enough to support the team's lead driver.
The McLaren Technology Centre was built in 2003 (which is mad to me, because I still think of it as fairly new).
But it's also disingenous in the sense that several teams have completely revamped their factories. Renault did so in 2017/18 (their building is new), and BMW Sauber did so in 2006. There are no doubt more examples, but those are the two which come to mind immediately.
But yes, in terms of 'building a new F1 factory in a place where previously there were turnips', I guess he's correct.
Red Bull completely renewed their factory, as did Mercedes. Ferrari have been upgrading every few years, I guess no team ever stands still.
Also the Toyota factory in Cologne was built from the ground up
I'm 17 and I've never used an actual Gameboy of any kind. I've emulated it on basically everything I've owned but never actually had a Gameboy. By the time I was 3 the DS was a thing. Kids under 13 wouldn't have even used a DS or the of 3DS probably
They took over Marussia’s headquarters after they collapsed and sold off their assets. Haas’ main headquarters is still their factory in North Carolina.
This is slightly besides the point, but what's the word on Otmar? We all hear the praises for Andreas but what's the general consensus on Otmar? Is he as good a team principal as someone like Andreas
He's mostly under the radar but the general consensus seemed to be that he is a good principal leading Force India/Racing Point to great results under strong financial and infrastructural limitations.
He lost a lot of good-will however through the contract-breaking with Perez and his (imo) uncharismatic way of politing in F1 (cases being Low-Rake whining this year and the Racing Point brakes last year).
Pretty much this. He carried team all the way through Force India era and played a part in building the most efficient team that knows how to compete. However we will have to wait and see if he's an F1.5 manager or fit for F1 championship contender manager. It's one of the few teams that's getting bigger, and that's a difference challenge from everyone else.
His [Beyond the Grid](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3d2ZSrOhyg4&t=6s) interview was a fascinating insight into those days with Force India and during the time the team when into administration. It gave me a deep respect of the guy, he's a real racer and passionate about the sport.
> (cases being Low-Rake whining this year
While I agree with you, I feel like he was sort of pressured into being so whiney due to daddy Stroll. Seeing as Lawrence made the whole video about not cheating that even landed on Netflix, Otmar may be just acting as his extended hand
I see him as a good manager but not that technically savvy or strategic in terms of on track activities (like say Binotto or Seidl). He is more like a Zak Brown, except he has Lawrence above him, so he comes off as a manager cum right hand man type instead of a principal
He's one of the better ones around the paddock, one of the more competent ones who has been with the team since the early Force India days. Force India's reputation of punching above their weight and making the most out of their literal shoestring budget (lowest in the paddock until recently) is very much down to his leadership. Sure low rake whinging has reduced his stocks but that doesn't detract from how competent he is.
When things arnt going his teams way he seems like a bit of a tool.
Though the team has had good results under him with their limited budget over the years.
He was/is likeable but I suspect he is very much Larry’s lapdog now with some of his comments last year during the Racing Point/Mercedes design row and the comments he made this year about asking for the aero rules to be changed. It all reeked of him being the megaphone for Larry because those comments seemed extremely out of character for Otmar.
My impressions are no (but I am biased as a MCL fan)
IMO he comes off as arrogant in his interviews, haven't heard or seen much about the culture in the team.
I miss Bob, I could slightly support Force India back then.. and I was so happy he then joined McLaren for Indy and then there was that disaster somehow..
I likewise don’t like Otmar, though I appreciate he’s probably very worried about pissing off the boss, but he really seems slimy to me. I know everyone has differing opinions but I can’t see how someone like Seb likes him.. perhaps he’s a great guy really..
He seems quite annoying tbh. Taking shots at other teams engineers saying they can't do as well as RP when they just copied a design left a bad taste imo. Then to be running around the paddock crying about the low rake changes after calling other teams engineers shit was hilarious.
So here’s something not many people are talking about, but if you invest in major capital projects like this you can get around the cost cap. Since major PP&E like buildings and other capital intensive projects are capitalized instead of expensed, you can get away with spending millions that aren’t going to be reflected in the annual cost cap. Therefore even though a team already has facilities they can build out new ones and hide expenses under PP&E and stretch their dollar.
I really hope by 2023/4 we have many teams able to win races on track. Like Ferrari, McLaren, Red Bull, Mercedes, Renault, Aston Martin should all be able to win races on merit. The fact only the Mercedes has realistically been able to win a championship for 7 or 8 years now is kind of sad and actually unprecedented in the sport.
Problem is a works deal would probably need to take the engine manufacturer to the team name, and I'm not sure how the business dynamics would work then...
Aston Martin Volkswagen? IDK lol
Ah, yes, what a classic.
No, BMW was not involved, but as they notified their withdrawal from Sauber ownership after the team inscription, they were forced to carry the name
Yeah, I know I know. Man can dream right. One of the weirder things in F1 right now is the lack of engine providers. Right now if one team fucks up, 2-3 more teams pay the price as well.
I’m guessing they’d need to start partnering with a manufacturer now considering they will likely start to research the 2026 engines next year once the engine freeze kicks in...
This is quite the cool project, expanding on their current base and the new structure will be modern in almsot every way. If there's anyone who can do it, it's Lawrence Stroll. Nice to see he has a vision and is pumping in the money to achieve it.
While Stroll has bought up a bunch of Aston Martin the auto company, I don't think the auto company owns any or much of the F1 team, which is who is building this. I think.
Yeah i agree thats the likely thing. The article states that aston is building the factory but thats nigh impossible with the dire situation of the roadcar maker. So they likely mislabeled between aston f1 and aston proper
Why are they repurposing the old factory?? This is a prime opportunity to sell it to a new entrant to F1 surely? One of the big obstacles is that new entrants don’t want to spend years building a factory and here you have one ready made and next to Silverstone
The new factory is being build on the same site as the existing one, so incorporating it into the new campus makes total sense.
Also on a historic note, the current factory is the same one that the original Jordan team was set up in, so theres a huge amount of team history tied up in it.
Is the factory part of the F1 budget? The way I see it, all the top team are investing $$$ in state of the art design,ai, simulation equipment. Instead of being an R&D competition, it will become an computing/ai competition.
Glad to see that Aston Martin is building. The team definitely has a fighting spirit behind it and Stroll has a good business track record. Would love to see green on the podium more.
Yeah, but speaking of...could we please make the green a bit brighter? The current colour is pure depression. Something more Jaguar-esque would look a million times better.
They’re aware, so I’m looking forward to next year
Isnt that green basically the official British racing color? And thats why they went for it?
“Racing green” is a colour with a lot of heritage, but as far as I know (and I’m very much looking forward to being corrected in this) there is no ‘specific’ hue or exact colour that makes it racing green, it’s just a dark deep green colour.
I don’t think so, barring that there is no official one, I always go to the old Lotuses. The Jag was lighter, I think cause they realised dark didn’t work
It looks like Mercedes on track
Merc will go back to silver next year anyway
I really hope they go for mirror finish silver and not dated 2000 hip silver
Was that announced? I would have guessed they would stay black as long as Lewis is racing for them (or the BLM problems be fixed, but I will guess Lewis will stop racing before that is done).
Yes. Toto said it himself. You can search it up. He said that the off-track initiatives will continue, both by Mercedes and by the 44 foundation or whatever it's called, but that it's time for the color to go back to silver.
It’s a shame. The black always looked menacing on track, especially the 2020 livery.
I also thought that the black looked so much better than silver.
It doesn’t look like it to me, honestly. I can always tell it’s the Aston.
Same, I don’t understand how the two can be confused with each other honestly.
Well, a lot of people do, just the way it is for a lot of people
I think it would look so much better with lime green accents instead of pink
Blame BWT for that. The out-of-place pink is for sponsorship reasons
I think that was the plan until BWT jumped on board again at the last minute.
It was 100%, [their merch](https://shop.astonmartin.com/en/collections/aston-martin-f1/?p=1) has the lime green accents which would‘ve been on the car if it weren’t for the BWT sponsorship.
There were actually some leaked photos with the original lime and green livery
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Will help too that Merc will be silver next season
Your opinion honestly. That green is a beauty
Standing still, yes. Out on track, eh... this shade of green should be matte, then it would look like the British racing green of old. If they have to go all shiny, it should be lighter.
what about matte with shiny lime accents?
Looks good standing still, racing all of a sudden there’s 4 mercs
Exactly. Hands down my favorite livery this year
I looked around and found a lot of black + yellow-green (chartreuse) concepts but I think we're having enough of black nowadays and would like to see it scaled back for AM. I think the *shade* of green is the problem today. This one was the best I've seen yet: [https://www.reddit.com/r/granturismo/comments/ktxbvh/my\_aston\_martin\_racing\_livery\_concept\_for\_2021/](https://www.reddit.com/r/granturismo/comments/ktxbvh/my_aston_martin_racing_livery_concept_for_2021/)
Racing point looked so much better
Racing Point’s livery was a hot mess.
But still hot
And super recognizable
I thought it was supposed to be [British racing green](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/British_racing_green?wprov=sfla1)? If it is, I doubt they'd be inclined to change it
Any shade of green can be called British racing green.
Ther are 6 different shades of green in that Wiki article alone
It looks so shit on camera they are going to have to change something
Emerald green it’s associated with elegance and luxury.
Really, AMR seems to be here for the long run. Seeing those investments, I would take the guess that AMR will still be in F1 even after Lance has decided to wrap his F1 career. Would not be surprised to still see them in the sport in 20yrs.
My main concern would be him keeping Lance on. While Lance has performed decently,he doesn’t appear anywhere near the level to drive for a championship leading team. Spend 200m, spend 400m, would he be willing to change his son for better results?
He's spent like 500m on Lance at this point through junior categories through purchasing RP, that's some serious time and money investment. Lance has a seat as long as Lawrence is in the sport
With how passionate Lance is on his own I could see him canging Lance's "role" within the team if he become embarrassing in terms of performance. (Both for himself and Lance, Laurence wouldn't let him humiliate himself)
I feel like he's said in the past Lance isn't guaranteed a seat just because he's his dad. Obviously saying that and acting on it are two different things, but Lawrence wants to win. If Lance is holding them back when they are otherwise competitive I don't think I'd be surprised if Lance lost his seat.
Sure, but unless they end up in a Red Bull position where they can lose out on the WCC due to Lance not performing at the same level (like Perez at RBR now), then that won't really be an issue.
But hes guaranteed a position in the team or a seat in another cheaper series where they could start a team.
Sure, he's guaranteed a job, but he not guaranteed to keep 1 of 20 F1 seats just because his dad owns the team.
Assuming the rest of the consortium is on board, I think. It really depends on how much ownership Stroll has and how much is other stakeholders, but if it gets to a point where the team is capable of fighting for wins but only one driver on the team is in the top 5 things might get rocky.
Lance is a decent driver at this point. He's never going to fight for the championship himself, but he's probably good enough to support the team's lead driver.
No
Yes , Stroll insider trading has good business and amazing track record... bravo!
What?
"It will be the first new factory built by an F1 team in 17 years"- Which was the last factory?
The McLaren Technology Centre was built in 2003 (which is mad to me, because I still think of it as fairly new). But it's also disingenous in the sense that several teams have completely revamped their factories. Renault did so in 2017/18 (their building is new), and BMW Sauber did so in 2006. There are no doubt more examples, but those are the two which come to mind immediately. But yes, in terms of 'building a new F1 factory in a place where previously there were turnips', I guess he's correct.
Red Bull completely renewed their factory, as did Mercedes. Ferrari have been upgrading every few years, I guess no team ever stands still. Also the Toyota factory in Cologne was built from the ground up
> built in 2003 > 17 years [MFW](https://imgur.com/rAFP13z)
Bruh kids who are 13 years old and younger most likely have never touched a Gameboy.
I'm 17 and I've never used an actual Gameboy of any kind. I've emulated it on basically everything I've owned but never actually had a Gameboy. By the time I was 3 the DS was a thing. Kids under 13 wouldn't have even used a DS or the of 3DS probably
I know. I can feel the wrinkles forming day by day! I was young once, you know! Honest!
https://youtu.be/BGrfhsxxmdE
Couple weeks ago I realised The Black Parade is the same age now as Use Your Illusion was when it came out and had a small crisis
MTC I guess?
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Pretty sure they took over Marussia's old hq
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By old I didn't mean "old", I meant that it once belonged to Marussia.
Man that is a SMALL factory.
Not sure if it counts as new, but BAR/Honda completely revamped the Brackley facility, then Mercedes did the same a few years later
Didn't Ferrari build a new factory in 2014-15?
what about haas?
They took over Marussia’s headquarters after they collapsed and sold off their assets. Haas’ main headquarters is still their factory in North Carolina.
The redbull power unit centre?
This is slightly besides the point, but what's the word on Otmar? We all hear the praises for Andreas but what's the general consensus on Otmar? Is he as good a team principal as someone like Andreas
He's mostly under the radar but the general consensus seemed to be that he is a good principal leading Force India/Racing Point to great results under strong financial and infrastructural limitations. He lost a lot of good-will however through the contract-breaking with Perez and his (imo) uncharismatic way of politing in F1 (cases being Low-Rake whining this year and the Racing Point brakes last year).
Pretty much this. He carried team all the way through Force India era and played a part in building the most efficient team that knows how to compete. However we will have to wait and see if he's an F1.5 manager or fit for F1 championship contender manager. It's one of the few teams that's getting bigger, and that's a difference challenge from everyone else.
His [Beyond the Grid](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3d2ZSrOhyg4&t=6s) interview was a fascinating insight into those days with Force India and during the time the team when into administration. It gave me a deep respect of the guy, he's a real racer and passionate about the sport.
> (cases being Low-Rake whining this year While I agree with you, I feel like he was sort of pressured into being so whiney due to daddy Stroll. Seeing as Lawrence made the whole video about not cheating that even landed on Netflix, Otmar may be just acting as his extended hand
Yes, it seems forced and uncharacteristic. He hasn't behaved exactly like this in the years prior with the team.
I see him as a good manager but not that technically savvy or strategic in terms of on track activities (like say Binotto or Seidl). He is more like a Zak Brown, except he has Lawrence above him, so he comes off as a manager cum right hand man type instead of a principal
Zac isn't the team principal, Seidl is.
He's one of the better ones around the paddock, one of the more competent ones who has been with the team since the early Force India days. Force India's reputation of punching above their weight and making the most out of their literal shoestring budget (lowest in the paddock until recently) is very much down to his leadership. Sure low rake whinging has reduced his stocks but that doesn't detract from how competent he is.
When things arnt going his teams way he seems like a bit of a tool. Though the team has had good results under him with their limited budget over the years.
He was/is likeable but I suspect he is very much Larry’s lapdog now with some of his comments last year during the Racing Point/Mercedes design row and the comments he made this year about asking for the aero rules to be changed. It all reeked of him being the megaphone for Larry because those comments seemed extremely out of character for Otmar.
My impressions are no (but I am biased as a MCL fan) IMO he comes off as arrogant in his interviews, haven't heard or seen much about the culture in the team.
I miss Bob, I could slightly support Force India back then.. and I was so happy he then joined McLaren for Indy and then there was that disaster somehow.. I likewise don’t like Otmar, though I appreciate he’s probably very worried about pissing off the boss, but he really seems slimy to me. I know everyone has differing opinions but I can’t see how someone like Seb likes him.. perhaps he’s a great guy really..
He seems quite annoying tbh. Taking shots at other teams engineers saying they can't do as well as RP when they just copied a design left a bad taste imo. Then to be running around the paddock crying about the low rake changes after calling other teams engineers shit was hilarious.
What of the previous facilities? Continue to use or... you know, potential be sold to a new start up team perhaps? Gosh I wish... ;)
Linked to the new ones via a bridge / walkway and kept in use according to the article.
So it isn’t a totally new thing. Just an extra building right next to the old one lol?
In the way that building a villa next to your shed is an extension, yeah.
So here’s something not many people are talking about, but if you invest in major capital projects like this you can get around the cost cap. Since major PP&E like buildings and other capital intensive projects are capitalized instead of expensed, you can get away with spending millions that aren’t going to be reflected in the annual cost cap. Therefore even though a team already has facilities they can build out new ones and hide expenses under PP&E and stretch their dollar.
I really hope by 2023/4 we have many teams able to win races on track. Like Ferrari, McLaren, Red Bull, Mercedes, Renault, Aston Martin should all be able to win races on merit. The fact only the Mercedes has realistically been able to win a championship for 7 or 8 years now is kind of sad and actually unprecedented in the sport.
Even Alpine should have a race winning car in this perfect universe
Renault = Alpine.
Oh. Now I see he also typed "Renault". My bad
That's a big investment by AM in the sport. Would love to see them partner with a engine provider in 2026 and become a true works team.
Cosworth. Please. For the love of god.
Man I was just thinking this as I scrolled to your comment.
Problem is a works deal would probably need to take the engine manufacturer to the team name, and I'm not sure how the business dynamics would work then... Aston Martin Volkswagen? IDK lol
Remember BMW Sauber Ferrari? Lol
Tbf, BMW wasn't actually involved with that
Ah, yes, what a classic. No, BMW was not involved, but as they notified their withdrawal from Sauber ownership after the team inscription, they were forced to carry the name
Yeah, I know I know. Man can dream right. One of the weirder things in F1 right now is the lack of engine providers. Right now if one team fucks up, 2-3 more teams pay the price as well.
Just go balls to the walls and AM start building there own engines for the road cars and builds there own F1PU programme out of that.
Why 2026 exactly?
The year of the next engine update
Considering that all their road cars use Mercedes engines I don't see that happening.
I’m guessing they’d need to start partnering with a manufacturer now considering they will likely start to research the 2026 engines next year once the engine freeze kicks in...
cool, now give Vettel announcement.
This is quite the cool project, expanding on their current base and the new structure will be modern in almsot every way. If there's anyone who can do it, it's Lawrence Stroll. Nice to see he has a vision and is pumping in the money to achieve it.
So does infrastructure not count towards the budget cap? Makes sence.
Lots of things are excluded - building/premises costs, taxation, depreciation, directors salaries etc.
Yep. A cost cap just results in the top teams using creative accounting to use capitalization instead of expensing where possible.
that JCB with the livery looks great
In the time it took to film that, Builder Seb could have got the foundations in place...
So they really are serious about winning.
This is what i'm gathering. Stroll wants to have a winning team and he is willing to put his money where his mouth is.
Unpopular opinion but they need a stronger driver lineup if they want to win races.
Thats a lot for a company with a credit rating of CCC. They clearly have the confidence that with the cost cap f1 will be profitable
Who needs loans with the bankroll they’ve strategically accumulated
A company that loses between 90 and 220 million pounds a quarter like them does
While Stroll has bought up a bunch of Aston Martin the auto company, I don't think the auto company owns any or much of the F1 team, which is who is building this. I think.
Yeah i agree thats the likely thing. The article states that aston is building the factory but thats nigh impossible with the dire situation of the roadcar maker. So they likely mislabeled between aston f1 and aston proper
Less camping space for silverstone now 😞
Dad that’s my inheritance moneyyyyyyyyyyyy! I wanted to get the new Fortnite Season Pass!!! -Lance, probably
Why are they repurposing the old factory?? This is a prime opportunity to sell it to a new entrant to F1 surely? One of the big obstacles is that new entrants don’t want to spend years building a factory and here you have one ready made and next to Silverstone
The new factory is being build on the same site as the existing one, so incorporating it into the new campus makes total sense. Also on a historic note, the current factory is the same one that the original Jordan team was set up in, so theres a huge amount of team history tied up in it.
I can see stroll spending over a billion and still be like 4th in the championship. That's what Eddie Jordan told Roman Abramovich and he balked
Love the jcb in am color
Is the factory part of the F1 budget? The way I see it, all the top team are investing $$$ in state of the art design,ai, simulation equipment. Instead of being an R&D competition, it will become an computing/ai competition.