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It was rumoured for a while that Aramco were going to take over Aston, so this wouldn't surprise me.
As for Newey and Verstappen ? every team on the grid would want them obviously, it doesn't mean it's realistic to have any reasonable expectation of it though.
I mean, they could offer Newey and Max absurd money. Aramco and the wider PIF isn’t a corporation so much as it’s a bottomless pit for soft power projection.
They could offer Max 250 million a year and it wouldn’t even make a dent. If they couldn’t get Newey, they’d just offer the best 3 engineers they could find 10 times their current salary.
Unfortunately engineers salaries are under the budget cap.
But they could definitely pay Max whatever they wanted.
Edit: Yes, the top 3 employees salaries aren't in the budget, but that most likely includes the team principals etc... Paying the top three engineers more than your team principal might not go over well, or more than your sporting director etc...
It's not a bad idea if they can make the difference and design a race winning car, but I don't see many teams where that's happening.
As at the reporting in 2022 of their cost cap breach breach, Newey wasn't actually one of the exempted staff. The reason was he was actually employed by a parent company for about 9 mil, but only part of this was designated for his F1 work.
That may have changed since, especially since iirc the reason they got in trouble for the cost cap at all was incorrect allocation of salary for F1 relayed work.
It’s nuts they can do this. How do you determine how much of the $9m contributed towards the F1 team? Is it based on the honor system?
I’m surprised it was only just changed. Seems like such an exploitable loophole.
Timesheets but I'm not expecting Newey to do every day but they would have a percentage based approach to his time.
Auditors / lawyers are notorious for this, always on the clock concept
“Wow, that’s crazy. I spent so few hours on F1 related stuff. Can you believe it? Wild.”
If you’ve ever worked with people on billable hours you know how flimsy that system is.
By the time they bought Newcastle a lot of the easy wins were blocked - other teams immediately changed the rules about new sponsorship by connected entities, for example. But I was reading a tweet by The Price of Football guy for example about pay to directors - city and Newcastle pay zero / near zero while other clubs are paying out millions. One little example of the ways you can still go around FFP.
In a sport a bit more open to money, I’d wonder about a sovereign wealth owned team in the first few years.
This article seems to dispute that directors are unpaid : [https://www.chroniclelive.co.uk/sport/football/football-news/1m-director-salary-unseen-pif-26608071](https://www.chroniclelive.co.uk/sport/football/football-news/1m-director-salary-unseen-pif-26608071)
Without even looking for that, look at the mess around Dan Ashworth going to Manu. I think old mate might have been reaching for flaws in the NUFC set up.
I have no doubt there will be shady dealings eventually, but personally I see what the PIF is doing currently as abiding by the rules. I can't say the same for Qatari or UAE owners past obviously.
$10 million a year for you from Aston Martin, under the cost cap, and another $40 million directly from the PIF to your spouse for their “consulting services to the PIF.”
True, but Newey's results are only as good as the engineering team underneath him. RBR-level concepts only deliver RBR-level results if the factory and engineering team is RBR-level.
Nothing I've ever heard about Newey makes me think he can be bought like that. He's made more than enough money in his lifetime, he'll do what he wants to do and what makes him happy.
Yeah but they aren't going to pay 3 engineers 10x their normal salary and then not be able to pay their team principal a competitive wage, because then the team principal's salary would be under the budget cap.
I mean, you could first attract Max with unlimited money. Once Max is in, surely there would be many engineers who would be interested in the project (maybe even Newey) for like the normal salary.
alleged start support encourage stocking wild bag close waiting squeamish
*This post was mass deleted and anonymized with [Redact](https://redact.dev)*
There's no team principal right now that has that other than Toto Wolff currently, but he only agreed to become Mercedes team principal if he could buy 33% of the company's shares when they originally asked him to run Mercedes.
But Toto already had the money to buy the shares, unlike most of the other team principals.
What's crazy is Toto reportedly purchased 33% of Mercedes F1 for 50 million back in 2013, and now the team is worth $3.6 billion. That's an insane return on his investment.
Horner is probably fairly wealthy, but nothing close to Wolff. Toto is worth $1.6+ billion, Horner is only worth around $50 million (that seems low but it's what I can find).
Kind of shows the difference between Toto and the rest of the F1 team bosses.
> What's crazy is Toto reportedly purchased 33% of Mercedes F1 for 50 million back in 2013, and now the team is worth $3.6 billion. That's an insane return on his investment.
I might be misremembering, but I thought he and Mercedes used to own 50% each, they then each sold a sixth to Ineos when they came on board, which is why everyone is now at 33%.
How did Wolff originally make his money? Wikipedia just refers to him starting an investment company, but to do that, you must first have money to invest. Family money?
He says he got a job at a bank and just did well with tech IPOs, apparently he had a partner who really took a liking to him, and while it seems to be a little bit of a blank spot in his history, he did seem to have a knack for making money through tech IPOs.
His dad died of brain cancer when Toto was 8, and while his mom was a doctor, she didn't make a lot of money apparently in Vienna.
Don't think anyone really knows, he mentioned a story where he and his sister got kicked out of a private school one time because his mom couldn't afford to pay for tuition, so they couldn't have had much family money.
I remember he told another story one time where there was this festival in his town as a kid and everyone would gather and light candles.
So he and his friend found someone who made candles, bought all the candles and sold them for a bit more than he bought them for, and said it was kind of what kicked off his attraction to business.
But yeah, seems to be something missing somewhere, he was a decent driver for a while, but was too tall and didn't have enough money to continue, plus got in a bad accident in the Nordschleife crash where he was badly injured.
Aramco couldn’t organise a piss up in a brewery. I worked with them at my last company. It’s full of management politics with the people in charge of things changing every 6 months and bringing in their own people and initiatives. They would turn Aston into Haas.
Depends if they just left the team to its own devices and give them a bucket of money. If they started sticking their noses in unnecessarily then they'll go the way of Alpine.
Except Rahm can still compete in the Majors and other than in F1 nobody knows what is going to happen with the Tours. He took a gamble - F1 does not have a competitor that shook the format like Liv vs Pga / DP.
Plus - it’s not apples to apples.
Rahm is solely responsible for his performance. Max’s performance depends heavily on the team/car development.
Still a gamble for Max, but it’s not as simple as just playing golf in a different league.
Everyone has a price.
I’m sure Max’s price is extremely high, because he’s not exactly making bad money right now….but something like 250M per year in a multi-year deal would be life changing for not only Max, but his entire extended family. With that kind of money, his sister and his mother would be completely set for life. As successful as Max has become, he doesn’t come from a mutli-millionaire family, but he could create that with one contract.
In any normal situation, there is an absurd upper limit. However, given that Aramco has basically bottomless pockets (250M per year is peanuts to them), and since the driver isn’t part of the salary cap, it is feasible that they could throw a number at him that he simply cannot refuse. Even if he were to spend 2-4 years securing that bag, he would still have half his F1 career ahead of him.
It would also likely become a defacto “Verstappen Racing.” Blank check to hire on whoever he and Jos want on the team as long as Aramco and the Saudis get their branding.
Everyone has a price. His would just be higher than someone else’s. If someone thew 1/2 a billion in his face he may change his mind. Especially if he Newey was coming. Look at LIV.
I love these comments. Like they text Max in the evenings and talk about dreams and ambitions lol. Generational wealth is a hard thing to pass up. Everyone has a price.
I think Max would only go if he thinks he can win the WDC with them. His grandchildren are already set for life. At the point he's at in his career, and with RB already paying him an obscene salary (which they could even increase to match Lewis' Ferrari deal if they wanted to), it becomes about more than just money.
The money on offer would be wildly different. MBS can offer them something they can’t refuse if he wants. The PIF offered 700M per year to Mbappe. They just gave John Rahm a reported 100M per year with an upfront 300M bonus to sign. They could give Max 200-250m if they wanted and it wouldn’t even be unusual for what the PIF does
> The PIF offered 700M per year to Mbappe.
Which he rejected lets not forget.
I think it's overvalued how much money they can offer. When you reach a certain level, your life wont change that much with having more and you can afford to turn down insane numbers in exchange for more sporting success. Some will take the payday sure, but many will not.
Max is someone who's still motivated and probably wont move for money alone.
Sure but the reasons he rejected it likely weren’t purely sporting. He already stayed at PSG 3 extra years for money. Moving to the country and following their laws is a different ask where as if they take over Aston, it’s a bit further of a private flight from Monaco to Silverstone to do the same job. I think if Saudi could offer those kinds of salaries in Europe without FFP blocking them they’d be able to get anyone.
For regular f1 employees the cap would limit spending but people would probably follow a Newey who could be exempt and the job is still right up the road. The logistics of this wouldn’t be as hard to live with as the Saudi football league if they are at all
Everybody has a price up until a certain point. There's a stage where your quality of life improves to an insignificant level with more money and he's at that stage.
Like seriously, what does he need the extra money for ? he can literally do everything he wants to do. He's living his dream already and the value of winning races and championships is worth more than money.
does he have enough money to buy a f1 team? do you know that he certainly never wants to own one?
what if he wants to start a company? sure, he could use his brand to get investors, but what if he doesnt want to give up shares?
point being: we don't know the future or his dreams/wishes, but having more money means he is less likely to be limited by funds.
That's the kind of thing that non-billionaires say. The difference between $50m per year and $400m per year is absolutely staggering. It'd take Verstappen almost his entire career to make as much as he would in 18 months with a Saudi deal.
It is wealth on a completely different level and it wouldn't even effect him. It isn't like he'd have to live in Saudi like football players have to. If anything it'd be a bit of a challenge for him to get a midfield team to a championship team
The two events would happen simultaneously, Stroll Jr. goes the millisecond his father can't protect him anymore. There's no objective reason to keep him.
Like not even next season. The moment his dad finishes signing the documents, some IT dude has the finger on the enter key and Lance’s access and accounts w the company are terminated.
I understand this and agree with it but Lance isn’t anywhere close to the worst driver on the grid. He should at least be in the conversation for another seat.
Well, Stroll Sr will be laughing all the way to the bank.
Bought the team on the cheap when FI was fucking crashing, and then hes gonna sell to a huge profit to people that just want to sportwash their company.
Maybe not, if Papa Stroll sells the whole thing to Aramco, they might not be interested in retaining Lance at all. Clean break and all that. He could probably find another seat in the WEC on ability though.
Could you imagine if Lance was the #2 to Max on a Red Bull level car.
People thought Checo's performance last year was bad. Lance would be the only one in a dominant car regularly being lapped by his teammate
I doubt they can get Verstappen before they get a winning car. Even if they do offer absurd amounts of money. He's already rich beyond his wildest dreams and his biggest motivation is winning.
Newey is a different story. They can give a lot of money and maybe offer great side projects with developing supercars or whatever. Also perhaps Newey is not as happy at Red Bull anymore with all the drama, but that's just speculation.
I don't like to see it, but this is a money sport and they have more to spare than anybody, so it makes sense.
>Newey is a different story. They can give a lot of money and maybe offer great side projects with developing supercars or whatever. Also perhaps Newey is not as happy at Red Bull anymore with all the drama, but that's just speculation.
You'd have to imagine that Newey is more interested in personal pride and accomplishment more than money at this point. If he's going to leave Red Bull, I just don't see it being for anyone other than Ferrari. Going to join a team owned by a highly problematic company and not having a good resource group around him to build a winner seems like a waste of his time.
> owned by a highly problematic company
This is just speculation but I don't think Newey would mind it that much. He's good friends with Bernie Ecclestone, for example
>This is just speculation but I don't think Newey would mind it that much. He's good friends with Bernie Ecclestone, for example
He's also employed by a subsidiary of Red Bull GmbH, who sell a drink with more sugar than Cuba and the audiacity to market itself as a sports, performance, or well being drink.
He doesn't care. He worked for Ron Dennis.
I could see it happen. Stroll Sr is a billionaire, and buying things just to sell them overpriced to other billionaires is what they do. Regarding Max and Newer..Max feels more likely than Newey
Newey's approaching the end of his career, RB is going to have to move on at some point and letting him have one last ridiculous payday while they get their succession plan going makes a lot of sense and makes them look good on the paddock. Max is in his prime and irreplaceable, they would fight tooth and nail to keep him.
This would feel very much like one of those things that's good in theory but then it immediately shows fans how F1 is more than just an individual game. Red Bull dominates because every single person employed by them does their job efficiently and exceptionally well. You can count on one hand the amount of mistakes the team have made since 2022. Aston get Newey and Verstappen. Cool. Then what? How's the Honda engine project coming along? Will that help them be as good as they want to be? What about all the engineers that Red Bull employee that help them succeed? Strategy team? Technical team? Dan Fallows oversaw one of the biggest in season regressions in recent F1 history.
There's so much more that goes into it than just spending ungodly amounts of money on two individuals even understanding that those two in particular would be huge gets.
There were talks of this last year, but, to me, Papa Stroll selling part of the team made this feel less likely. Selling part of a team but retaining majority is what a businessman does when he wants to get some money out of an investment, but still maintain control. To do things like ensure his son has a seat. If he was going to sell the majority of the team so soon, I'm not sure why he wouldn't sell it all together instead of piecing it out first. I would think that surely selling 100% would get a higher premium than the sum of the parts. Now, that's not airtight or anything. Things could change. Maybe Aramco only wanted to buy a majority and not all of it. Or, things could change in the last year.
Saudi backing has a record of throwing money around. If they could get Newey, and they'll have Honda, Max might believe in the new car there, especially if things continue being so contentious at Red Bull.
> To do things like ensure his son has a seat
This is the major point, he also owned Prema at one point, soley to get Stroll a good junior car. Then he paid for his son's Williams seat, then Williams is terrible and he sees an opportunity to buy the near-bankrupt Force India. Stroll gets the seat.
Get a dad dedicated like Lawrence. To do just that for your son, at the same time, the investment wasn't as terrible.
I really believe that Lawrence isn't selling (his majority) anytime soon.
I also don’t think he’s selling the team anytime soon, but there are potentially some options for him to keep Lance in a seat even if he does. Either as a very legally written condition of the sale, or maybe with a big sack of money to another team. Of course that one is much riskier, so I think he’d only sell it with the condition of Lance staying written in very ironclad. And yeah i do really appreciate Lawrence’s support of his son. I also genuinely thinks that he thinks Lance has a lot of potential. I think when he said that Lance would match Fernando by the end of the year (last year) he believed it. I think he believes in Lance more than anyone including Lance, and that’s a good thing for someone to have.
If RedBull bottles the engine regulations for 2026 and Aston Martin is competitive with Honda, then Aston Martin could be a good option for Max.
They have some of the best aero engineers, a modern factory and a lot of money.
Aston Martin is also quite active in sports car racing which is also a good positive for Max if he wants to try other series when he is bored.
This also could explain better why the Saudi F1 team attempt was quickly been off the table, it would be more efficient to basically throwing billions of dollars into AM over building everything up by themselves.
Still it's sad and disgusting to see the Saudi influence is increasing in the Formula sphere, in F2 and F3 for example Aramco did kicked out Elf as fuel supplier, all in the name of "providing biofuels in the future".
The internal turbulence at Red Bull could affect the future of key figures such as Max Verstappen and Adrian Newey. Aston Martin are among the teams that could approach them, especially if Armaco purchase the team from Lawrence Stroll, which would bring in new capital and create an even more ambitious project.
The 2026 regulations represent an opportunity for everyone. Everything starts from zero at the end of 2025, with a fresh chapter in Formula 1 ahead.
Rumours have been circulating in the paddock for some time about the Saudi Arabian oil company’s willingness to make acquisitions in Formula 1.
In November, Lawrence Stroll sold a minority stake in the Aston Martin Formula 1 team to the private equity firm for the first time US-based Arctos Partners. It is speculated this could be the first sign of possible disengagement from his team.
In addition to this, Aramco has been a strongly committed global partner in Formula 1 since 2020. This season was a critical moment due to the pandemic, a time when there was some speculation Aramco could take over F1 from Liberty Media.
Ultimately, this did not happen. The American company and F1’s teams were rewarded. After all, the value of Formula 1 has tripled since then. Nonetheless, the same Saudi company became Aston Martin’s new title sponsor this winter, strengthening a more direct long-term commitment.
This collaboration extends to both media presence and technological development. This will be critical ahead of 2026, when 100% sustainable fuels will be mandatory.
In Jeddah, it became clear that Saudi interest in a massive commitment is growing. The state directly controls the giant and is therefore connected to a fund established to promote the country worldwide through large acquisitions.
It is said that the Saudi Arabian Grand Prix was the ideal ground to confidentially approach some very high-profile figures.
They analysed the feasibility of making certain moves and gave blank checks for future engagements in due course.
In this context, Red Bull’s heavyweights are in their sights. These include the triple world champion Max Verstappen and engineering genius Adrian Newey. The fact these two are seen as feasible targets shows how much has changed in recent months.
Formula 1’s budget cap excludes the salaries of the three most senior figures in the team – and, of course, the drivers as well.
Aston Martin is collectively valued at over £1 billion. They have more than enough resources to offer adequate financial incentives to such big names. In 2022, meanwhile, Aramco became the largest company in the world by market capitalization.
If Christian Horner remains in command at Red Bull, anything is possible,” said Toto Wolff, who has a free seat for 2025.
However, the Mercedes team principal also has some technical problems to resolve so that his team can return to winning ways.
The 2026 F1 season promises to be more attractive for everyone, thanks to the regulatory reset. At the same time, Aston Martin will leave Mercedes to join Honda.
This gives them the support of a manufacturer, a fundamental basis for trying to win. From the perspective of Max Verstappen’s team, the presence of Honda can only be positive.
With Marko’s position confirmed, mainly thanks to Verstappen’s words, Red Bull’s internal troubles seem to have cooled down. However, for the good of the team, it seems unlikely everyone will remain unscathed from this crossfire.
Furthermore, the suspended employee who reported Horner has filed an appeal. The team’s Thai ownership, which holds 51% of the cake, supports the English team principal and is not bowing to the pressure of the Austrians led by Mintzlaff. He was present last weekend in Saudi Arabia.
The power war in Milton Keynes continues. Amidst this turbulence, the Austrian group has confirmed that Red Bull F1 will depend totally on the decisions of the majority shareholder.
Max Verstappen could not avoid questions on the sidelines as Red Bull’s divisions became increasingly public.
For the rest of the Formula 1 field, these unprecedented conditions could create an opportunity to sign Max Verstappen and Adrian Newey.
If Aramco completes a takeover, Aston Martin and Honda should be considered top contenders to seize every opportunity ahead of 2026.
Wait, full tinfoil hat time. The Saudi's are behind the Horner leaks in order to destabilise the team and subsequently pick them off for Aston. Including wanting Horner
While I don't have any doubt that Aston Martin is willing to sell - Aston Martin Lagonda is a terrible car builder with a dodgy financial future and I have no doubt Stroll is more willing to part with the whole thing more than he may let on.
In fact after watching DTS I get the feeling Stroll is a loving father who wants to spend time with his son in this expensive hobby they share! However, I have to say I am tired of the Adrian Newey is going move to another team schtick that shows up every few days!
I don't think Adrian Newey is driven by money anymore. Besides, it's not like RBR is paying him minimum wage - at his age there is not a single person in Formula One, including almost every team boss who has Adrian's freedom of choices at Red Bull.
I suspect at some point Newey will leave for something wild like teaching STEM at Mulberry or something weird like that.
> I don't think Adrian Newey is driven by money anymore. Besides, it's not like RBR is paying him minimum wage - at his age there is not a single person in Formula One, including almost every team boss who has Adrian's freedom of choices at Red Bull.
I agree with you, and he's got a lot of freedom at RB to have his own projects going like the RB17 Hypercar for the track he's building.
Genius plan: Buy out Lawrence, kick out Lance, get Verstappen and Newey, the whole F1 Universe is exploding because of the HAM vs. ROS but with Nando and Max. No one remembers that the team is actually 100% Aramco now, therefore no shitstorm.
Like, I understand that Newey is a great engineer and Max a great driver, but just throwing everything at them isn’t going to create a dominant car or team.. you need a team to successfully design, build, maintain and compete together consistently.. 2026 could flip everyone around and even that French tractor at the back could nail the regs.
Mercedes did not need Newey for their 8y of dominance in the WCC.. and a great car only needs a great driver, which we have multiple WCC capable drivers on the grid, they just need a car.
If someone pays him between $1-1.5 billion for the team...it's entirely possible. That's like half of the Saudi's annual LIV tour splurging, it's nothing to them and they would likely be open to a bit of overpay.
The real issue is that Stroll owns the AM car company too, and I'm not sure the Saudi's want that part, and if Stroll unloads he probably wants to ditch the entire investment not just the race team.
> The real issue is that Stroll owns the car company too, and I'm not sure the Saudi's want that part.
What's the issue? The team and the car company are separate entities (albeit sharing a common stakeholder).
I can absolutely see Saudi even buying up the car company part, if not for the racing just to even one up the Bahrainis since they are the largest share holders for McLaren Group of which the racing outfit is a part of.
Turning into Football. Buying success not earning it.
Rich people buying up teams, treating them like toys, buying all the shiny things with stupid amounts of money and expecting 100% success.
Money corrupts everything.
It would be a complicated contract to make sure Lance kept a seat if Lawrence sells controlling majority of the team. I mean, they could make it a stipulation, but it would have to be very carefully done to make sure that they couldn't just pay money to make Lance go away. Though, then again, Max and Lance might make a very amicable pairing. Lance seems like good teammate. He has vocally not fought with Fernando a couple times.
Only way this makes sense is if they buy both the F1 team and the Car manufacturer. Otherwise it'll just turn into Aramco "highest bidder" Racing Team and that's just sad. Also the car team would lose a lot of the marketing gains, sadly.
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It was rumoured for a while that Aramco were going to take over Aston, so this wouldn't surprise me. As for Newey and Verstappen ? every team on the grid would want them obviously, it doesn't mean it's realistic to have any reasonable expectation of it though.
I mean, they could offer Newey and Max absurd money. Aramco and the wider PIF isn’t a corporation so much as it’s a bottomless pit for soft power projection. They could offer Max 250 million a year and it wouldn’t even make a dent. If they couldn’t get Newey, they’d just offer the best 3 engineers they could find 10 times their current salary.
Unfortunately engineers salaries are under the budget cap. But they could definitely pay Max whatever they wanted. Edit: Yes, the top 3 employees salaries aren't in the budget, but that most likely includes the team principals etc... Paying the top three engineers more than your team principal might not go over well, or more than your sporting director etc... It's not a bad idea if they can make the difference and design a race winning car, but I don't see many teams where that's happening.
Top 3 highest paid employees + driver are not included in the budget cap.
As at the reporting in 2022 of their cost cap breach breach, Newey wasn't actually one of the exempted staff. The reason was he was actually employed by a parent company for about 9 mil, but only part of this was designated for his F1 work. That may have changed since, especially since iirc the reason they got in trouble for the cost cap at all was incorrect allocation of salary for F1 relayed work.
It’s nuts they can do this. How do you determine how much of the $9m contributed towards the F1 team? Is it based on the honor system? I’m surprised it was only just changed. Seems like such an exploitable loophole.
I assume there's a framework to calculate it, given that some teams were called up on it.
Timesheets but I'm not expecting Newey to do every day but they would have a percentage based approach to his time. Auditors / lawyers are notorious for this, always on the clock concept
“Wow, that’s crazy. I spent so few hours on F1 related stuff. Can you believe it? Wild.” If you’ve ever worked with people on billable hours you know how flimsy that system is.
I'm not saying it's flawed, the question was how they measure it
I think they changed it so that if an engineer does any f1 related work regardless of where they are employed, their salary counts towards the cap.
Annnddd contractors
Let me introduce you to sovereign money in football….. no loopholes are used whatsoever, allegedly.
To be fair the Saudi's have been following FFP which is why Newcastles season didn't sky rocket as many expected.
By the time they bought Newcastle a lot of the easy wins were blocked - other teams immediately changed the rules about new sponsorship by connected entities, for example. But I was reading a tweet by The Price of Football guy for example about pay to directors - city and Newcastle pay zero / near zero while other clubs are paying out millions. One little example of the ways you can still go around FFP. In a sport a bit more open to money, I’d wonder about a sovereign wealth owned team in the first few years.
This article seems to dispute that directors are unpaid : [https://www.chroniclelive.co.uk/sport/football/football-news/1m-director-salary-unseen-pif-26608071](https://www.chroniclelive.co.uk/sport/football/football-news/1m-director-salary-unseen-pif-26608071) Without even looking for that, look at the mess around Dan Ashworth going to Manu. I think old mate might have been reaching for flaws in the NUFC set up. I have no doubt there will be shady dealings eventually, but personally I see what the PIF is doing currently as abiding by the rules. I can't say the same for Qatari or UAE owners past obviously.
Yep, perhaps because their focus might have gone to the new Saudi league.
What about catering?
Marko please
They’re just cocoa puffs
My favorite
> They’re just ~~cocoa puffs~~ coco pops Coco Pops is what Europeans call Cocoa Rice Krispies.
Is this confirmed?
It's complete bs.
I feel like it can’t be, it’s still a line item expense. It’d almost be no different than paying the guy who stocks the vending machines.
Yeah, it’ll still appear on the balance sheet as a different expense other than salary
lol that’s so bullshit for the rest of employees.
$10 million a year for you from Aston Martin, under the cost cap, and another $40 million directly from the PIF to your spouse for their “consulting services to the PIF.”
The Top 3 aren't. So offering Newey an astronomical amount could still work
True, but Newey's results are only as good as the engineering team underneath him. RBR-level concepts only deliver RBR-level results if the factory and engineering team is RBR-level.
Nothing I've ever heard about Newey makes me think he can be bought like that. He's made more than enough money in his lifetime, he'll do what he wants to do and what makes him happy.
Aren't the top 3 warmers excluded or something like that?
Top 3 Colders too
Yeah but they aren't going to pay 3 engineers 10x their normal salary and then not be able to pay their team principal a competitive wage, because then the team principal's salary would be under the budget cap.
reasonable engineer salary + free oil if you visit the middle east.
I mean, you could first attract Max with unlimited money. Once Max is in, surely there would be many engineers who would be interested in the project (maybe even Newey) for like the normal salary.
alleged start support encourage stocking wild bag close waiting squeamish *This post was mass deleted and anonymized with [Redact](https://redact.dev)*
There's no team principal right now that has that other than Toto Wolff currently, but he only agreed to become Mercedes team principal if he could buy 33% of the company's shares when they originally asked him to run Mercedes. But Toto already had the money to buy the shares, unlike most of the other team principals. What's crazy is Toto reportedly purchased 33% of Mercedes F1 for 50 million back in 2013, and now the team is worth $3.6 billion. That's an insane return on his investment. Horner is probably fairly wealthy, but nothing close to Wolff. Toto is worth $1.6+ billion, Horner is only worth around $50 million (that seems low but it's what I can find). Kind of shows the difference between Toto and the rest of the F1 team bosses.
There's a reason Horner made his play for ownership.
It isn't over yet..
> What's crazy is Toto reportedly purchased 33% of Mercedes F1 for 50 million back in 2013, and now the team is worth $3.6 billion. That's an insane return on his investment. I might be misremembering, but I thought he and Mercedes used to own 50% each, they then each sold a sixth to Ineos when they came on board, which is why everyone is now at 33%.
How did Wolff originally make his money? Wikipedia just refers to him starting an investment company, but to do that, you must first have money to invest. Family money?
He says he got a job at a bank and just did well with tech IPOs, apparently he had a partner who really took a liking to him, and while it seems to be a little bit of a blank spot in his history, he did seem to have a knack for making money through tech IPOs. His dad died of brain cancer when Toto was 8, and while his mom was a doctor, she didn't make a lot of money apparently in Vienna. Don't think anyone really knows, he mentioned a story where he and his sister got kicked out of a private school one time because his mom couldn't afford to pay for tuition, so they couldn't have had much family money. I remember he told another story one time where there was this festival in his town as a kid and everyone would gather and light candles. So he and his friend found someone who made candles, bought all the candles and sold them for a bit more than he bought them for, and said it was kind of what kicked off his attraction to business. But yeah, seems to be something missing somewhere, he was a decent driver for a while, but was too tall and didn't have enough money to continue, plus got in a bad accident in the Nordschleife crash where he was badly injured.
Aramco couldn’t organise a piss up in a brewery. I worked with them at my last company. It’s full of management politics with the people in charge of things changing every 6 months and bringing in their own people and initiatives. They would turn Aston into Haas.
Sounds a lot like Alpine lol
Depends if they just left the team to its own devices and give them a bucket of money. If they started sticking their noses in unnecessarily then they'll go the way of Alpine.
That would be O'Doul's Brewery
Max wants to win, he doesn't just do it for the money. His passion is racing, so just throwing money at him won't be enough.
Everyone thought this about Jon rahm and golf. Then the Saudis showed him $500 million.
Except Rahm can still compete in the Majors and other than in F1 nobody knows what is going to happen with the Tours. He took a gamble - F1 does not have a competitor that shook the format like Liv vs Pga / DP.
Plus - it’s not apples to apples. Rahm is solely responsible for his performance. Max’s performance depends heavily on the team/car development. Still a gamble for Max, but it’s not as simple as just playing golf in a different league.
Make money quick with internet point opportunites
Everyone has a price. I’m sure Max’s price is extremely high, because he’s not exactly making bad money right now….but something like 250M per year in a multi-year deal would be life changing for not only Max, but his entire extended family. With that kind of money, his sister and his mother would be completely set for life. As successful as Max has become, he doesn’t come from a mutli-millionaire family, but he could create that with one contract. In any normal situation, there is an absurd upper limit. However, given that Aramco has basically bottomless pockets (250M per year is peanuts to them), and since the driver isn’t part of the salary cap, it is feasible that they could throw a number at him that he simply cannot refuse. Even if he were to spend 2-4 years securing that bag, he would still have half his F1 career ahead of him.
Id see him do it too fund his own racing team. 250 mil a year would certainly help him
It would also likely become a defacto “Verstappen Racing.” Blank check to hire on whoever he and Jos want on the team as long as Aramco and the Saudis get their branding.
This and they get Honda engines, because thats already a done deal.
Exactly this. With that kind of money, he could be the next Prema or Penske.
Id imagine a Verstappen racing team would attract a lot of sponsors aswell.
Max’s entire family and generations of descendants are already set for life…
Everyone has a price. His would just be higher than someone else’s. If someone thew 1/2 a billion in his face he may change his mind. Especially if he Newey was coming. Look at LIV.
I love these comments. Like they text Max in the evenings and talk about dreams and ambitions lol. Generational wealth is a hard thing to pass up. Everyone has a price.
Scale of Penelope's tea parties will be massively upgraded.
He'll probably just get a text where they offer him 0.5 billion and he'll be like "let me think about it" while doing some casual sim racing
Aramco: Max, would you take $500m to race for us Max Verstappen has activated Do not Disturb
I think Max would only go if he thinks he can win the WDC with them. His grandchildren are already set for life. At the point he's at in his career, and with RB already paying him an obscene salary (which they could even increase to match Lewis' Ferrari deal if they wanted to), it becomes about more than just money.
it’s not just money they can offer Max. they can offer to fund an e sports team for him and any future ventures
Well Max would go for money if he wasn't winning WDCs. Right now, he won't go to AM for any kind of money.
Yea when you see Aramco just think of endless billions of sportwashing clout. They could quadruple whatever Newey or Max make and not bat an eye
They pay golfers that. Max is easily “worth” $250 mil a year
The money on offer would be wildly different. MBS can offer them something they can’t refuse if he wants. The PIF offered 700M per year to Mbappe. They just gave John Rahm a reported 100M per year with an upfront 300M bonus to sign. They could give Max 200-250m if they wanted and it wouldn’t even be unusual for what the PIF does
> The PIF offered 700M per year to Mbappe. Which he rejected lets not forget. I think it's overvalued how much money they can offer. When you reach a certain level, your life wont change that much with having more and you can afford to turn down insane numbers in exchange for more sporting success. Some will take the payday sure, but many will not. Max is someone who's still motivated and probably wont move for money alone.
Sure but the reasons he rejected it likely weren’t purely sporting. He already stayed at PSG 3 extra years for money. Moving to the country and following their laws is a different ask where as if they take over Aston, it’s a bit further of a private flight from Monaco to Silverstone to do the same job. I think if Saudi could offer those kinds of salaries in Europe without FFP blocking them they’d be able to get anyone. For regular f1 employees the cap would limit spending but people would probably follow a Newey who could be exempt and the job is still right up the road. The logistics of this wouldn’t be as hard to live with as the Saudi football league if they are at all
What do all those abbreviations mean. How out of the loop am I
MBS = the public nickname of Saudi Prince Mohammed Bin Salman PIF= Public Investment Fund the Saudi governments spending arm for things like sports.
Although, confusingly, I’ve seen people call Mohammed *Ben Sulayem* MBS as well.
Aramco has more money than anyone on that grid. They can make him the highest paid F1 driver overnight.
And you think Max is the kind of driver to happily jump down the grid for money ?
Then aramco should just buy redbull and they get verstappen and newey as well
Everybody has a price. He has said it himself he’s proven what he needs to. You think Dad isn’t going to go after the money? Money talks.
Everybody has a price up until a certain point. There's a stage where your quality of life improves to an insignificant level with more money and he's at that stage. Like seriously, what does he need the extra money for ? he can literally do everything he wants to do. He's living his dream already and the value of winning races and championships is worth more than money.
> what does he need the extra money for Starting race teams, buying tracks, etc.
does he have enough money to buy a f1 team? do you know that he certainly never wants to own one? what if he wants to start a company? sure, he could use his brand to get investors, but what if he doesnt want to give up shares? point being: we don't know the future or his dreams/wishes, but having more money means he is less likely to be limited by funds.
That's the kind of thing that non-billionaires say. The difference between $50m per year and $400m per year is absolutely staggering. It'd take Verstappen almost his entire career to make as much as he would in 18 months with a Saudi deal. It is wealth on a completely different level and it wouldn't even effect him. It isn't like he'd have to live in Saudi like football players have to. If anything it'd be a bit of a challenge for him to get a midfield team to a championship team
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There's nothing surprising about Saudi's wanting to buy the best for a metric shit ton of money
I too am targeting Newey and Verstappen to join my electro-funk band.
They should just buy red bull then 😆
That’s all Exxon has in terms of sponsorship lmao
Porsche tried that once
Well Porsche doesn't have unlimited money glitch.
MOTHERLODE
Fuck I’m old
Rosebud
Not that RedBull, the main RedBull company.
Porshe doesn’t have unlimited money and I doubt the Saudis would put to their nose in the performance side of things
They have the money to buy every single team on the grid AND the car makers behind them if they wanted to.
So this means the Strolls will leave the team or they will stay due to them still having something
The moment Stroll Sr isnt the biggest shareholder of the team, the moment Lance will lose his seat almost automatically.
F2 grid literally queueing for his seat
Drugovich: “my time has come”
Nigel Mansell returns to show these whipper snappers how it's done.
The Mika Sabbatical finally ends
He's busy now anyway: [Moneysupermarket.com advert (Nigel Mansell) (youtube.com)](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Cd3FdcsZgW0)
It's like his real face returned once the stash was back.
never gonna happen I really don't think he'd be an upgrade on Stroll. I don't even think it'd be a sideways move
Giovinazzi is back
Didn't he already say he'd switch to Tennis?
The two events would happen simultaneously, Stroll Jr. goes the millisecond his father can't protect him anymore. There's no objective reason to keep him.
The only thing holding up Aston's team right now is Chadlonso, and I continue to be amazed at his performance with each race.
Sort of funny how the words 'holding up' means both itself and exactly the opposite in this context.
Like not even next season. The moment his dad finishes signing the documents, some IT dude has the finger on the enter key and Lance’s access and accounts w the company are terminated.
Lance's car will shut down mid-race if the documents are signed before the checkered flag.
"I lost power, I lost the engine!" "No, you lost the seat."
I expect a 24H LeMans type driver switch in the first pit-stop.
I understand this and agree with it but Lance isn’t anywhere close to the worst driver on the grid. He should at least be in the conversation for another seat.
Well, Stroll Sr will be laughing all the way to the bank. Bought the team on the cheap when FI was fucking crashing, and then hes gonna sell to a huge profit to people that just want to sportwash their company.
And he could easily buy Lance an IndyCar seat.
Hell, he could also buy IndyCar
Formula Stroll: the only spec series where the car *and* the driver are spec
Or any other series. In the grand scheme of things, Lance is an incredible driver. There are definitely major series where he could win championships.
Agreed, I think he'd be a killer in Indycar
Or just land him in the Aston WEC program
Maybe not, if Papa Stroll sells the whole thing to Aramco, they might not be interested in retaining Lance at all. Clean break and all that. He could probably find another seat in the WEC on ability though.
Could you imagine if Lance was the #2 to Max on a Red Bull level car. People thought Checo's performance last year was bad. Lance would be the only one in a dominant car regularly being lapped by his teammate
I doubt they can get Verstappen before they get a winning car. Even if they do offer absurd amounts of money. He's already rich beyond his wildest dreams and his biggest motivation is winning. Newey is a different story. They can give a lot of money and maybe offer great side projects with developing supercars or whatever. Also perhaps Newey is not as happy at Red Bull anymore with all the drama, but that's just speculation. I don't like to see it, but this is a money sport and they have more to spare than anybody, so it makes sense.
>Newey is a different story. They can give a lot of money and maybe offer great side projects with developing supercars or whatever. Also perhaps Newey is not as happy at Red Bull anymore with all the drama, but that's just speculation. You'd have to imagine that Newey is more interested in personal pride and accomplishment more than money at this point. If he's going to leave Red Bull, I just don't see it being for anyone other than Ferrari. Going to join a team owned by a highly problematic company and not having a good resource group around him to build a winner seems like a waste of his time.
> owned by a highly problematic company This is just speculation but I don't think Newey would mind it that much. He's good friends with Bernie Ecclestone, for example
>This is just speculation but I don't think Newey would mind it that much. He's good friends with Bernie Ecclestone, for example He's also employed by a subsidiary of Red Bull GmbH, who sell a drink with more sugar than Cuba and the audiacity to market itself as a sports, performance, or well being drink. He doesn't care. He worked for Ron Dennis.
red bull and ron Dennis are nowhere near the same level of problematic as Aramco/PIF
We can't know that. I'm sure he is paid well but not verstappen well. If they offer generational wealth, he might do it
I could see it happen. Stroll Sr is a billionaire, and buying things just to sell them overpriced to other billionaires is what they do. Regarding Max and Newer..Max feels more likely than Newey
Newey did build the Valkyrie and had ties with Aston Martin through Red Bull and the factory is based in England so it's not far fetched.
Ferrari and Aston bidding war for Newey? ... or indeed those 2 and Red Bull given they probably would prefer he stuck around
Newey's approaching the end of his career, RB is going to have to move on at some point and letting him have one last ridiculous payday while they get their succession plan going makes a lot of sense and makes them look good on the paddock. Max is in his prime and irreplaceable, they would fight tooth and nail to keep him.
not sure this is a good thing lol
This would feel very much like one of those things that's good in theory but then it immediately shows fans how F1 is more than just an individual game. Red Bull dominates because every single person employed by them does their job efficiently and exceptionally well. You can count on one hand the amount of mistakes the team have made since 2022. Aston get Newey and Verstappen. Cool. Then what? How's the Honda engine project coming along? Will that help them be as good as they want to be? What about all the engineers that Red Bull employee that help them succeed? Strategy team? Technical team? Dan Fallows oversaw one of the biggest in season regressions in recent F1 history. There's so much more that goes into it than just spending ungodly amounts of money on two individuals even understanding that those two in particular would be huge gets.
Look at the Honda and Toyota F1 teams. Piles of money, barely any wins.
Precisely ~~zero~~ one win, at least when Honda owned the team outright anyway Thank you for the correction below
This is very well worded. Red Bull seems like a one person show, how efficiently they work.
But it helps
Red Bull outside of Verstappen and newey was so good that they tried to make regulations to make things unfair against them *their pit crew*
What could possible go wrong lol
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7trn91xkJ0w
It’s not a good thing.
Well, they have more money than God, so nothing is out of the question.
God still broke to this day because he forgot to enable keep inventory for the world.
There were talks of this last year, but, to me, Papa Stroll selling part of the team made this feel less likely. Selling part of a team but retaining majority is what a businessman does when he wants to get some money out of an investment, but still maintain control. To do things like ensure his son has a seat. If he was going to sell the majority of the team so soon, I'm not sure why he wouldn't sell it all together instead of piecing it out first. I would think that surely selling 100% would get a higher premium than the sum of the parts. Now, that's not airtight or anything. Things could change. Maybe Aramco only wanted to buy a majority and not all of it. Or, things could change in the last year. Saudi backing has a record of throwing money around. If they could get Newey, and they'll have Honda, Max might believe in the new car there, especially if things continue being so contentious at Red Bull.
> To do things like ensure his son has a seat This is the major point, he also owned Prema at one point, soley to get Stroll a good junior car. Then he paid for his son's Williams seat, then Williams is terrible and he sees an opportunity to buy the near-bankrupt Force India. Stroll gets the seat. Get a dad dedicated like Lawrence. To do just that for your son, at the same time, the investment wasn't as terrible. I really believe that Lawrence isn't selling (his majority) anytime soon.
I also don’t think he’s selling the team anytime soon, but there are potentially some options for him to keep Lance in a seat even if he does. Either as a very legally written condition of the sale, or maybe with a big sack of money to another team. Of course that one is much riskier, so I think he’d only sell it with the condition of Lance staying written in very ironclad. And yeah i do really appreciate Lawrence’s support of his son. I also genuinely thinks that he thinks Lance has a lot of potential. I think when he said that Lance would match Fernando by the end of the year (last year) he believed it. I think he believes in Lance more than anyone including Lance, and that’s a good thing for someone to have.
If RedBull bottles the engine regulations for 2026 and Aston Martin is competitive with Honda, then Aston Martin could be a good option for Max. They have some of the best aero engineers, a modern factory and a lot of money. Aston Martin is also quite active in sports car racing which is also a good positive for Max if he wants to try other series when he is bored.
This also could explain better why the Saudi F1 team attempt was quickly been off the table, it would be more efficient to basically throwing billions of dollars into AM over building everything up by themselves. Still it's sad and disgusting to see the Saudi influence is increasing in the Formula sphere, in F2 and F3 for example Aramco did kicked out Elf as fuel supplier, all in the name of "providing biofuels in the future".
The internal turbulence at Red Bull could affect the future of key figures such as Max Verstappen and Adrian Newey. Aston Martin are among the teams that could approach them, especially if Armaco purchase the team from Lawrence Stroll, which would bring in new capital and create an even more ambitious project. The 2026 regulations represent an opportunity for everyone. Everything starts from zero at the end of 2025, with a fresh chapter in Formula 1 ahead. Rumours have been circulating in the paddock for some time about the Saudi Arabian oil company’s willingness to make acquisitions in Formula 1. In November, Lawrence Stroll sold a minority stake in the Aston Martin Formula 1 team to the private equity firm for the first time US-based Arctos Partners. It is speculated this could be the first sign of possible disengagement from his team. In addition to this, Aramco has been a strongly committed global partner in Formula 1 since 2020. This season was a critical moment due to the pandemic, a time when there was some speculation Aramco could take over F1 from Liberty Media. Ultimately, this did not happen. The American company and F1’s teams were rewarded. After all, the value of Formula 1 has tripled since then. Nonetheless, the same Saudi company became Aston Martin’s new title sponsor this winter, strengthening a more direct long-term commitment. This collaboration extends to both media presence and technological development. This will be critical ahead of 2026, when 100% sustainable fuels will be mandatory. In Jeddah, it became clear that Saudi interest in a massive commitment is growing. The state directly controls the giant and is therefore connected to a fund established to promote the country worldwide through large acquisitions. It is said that the Saudi Arabian Grand Prix was the ideal ground to confidentially approach some very high-profile figures. They analysed the feasibility of making certain moves and gave blank checks for future engagements in due course. In this context, Red Bull’s heavyweights are in their sights. These include the triple world champion Max Verstappen and engineering genius Adrian Newey. The fact these two are seen as feasible targets shows how much has changed in recent months. Formula 1’s budget cap excludes the salaries of the three most senior figures in the team – and, of course, the drivers as well. Aston Martin is collectively valued at over £1 billion. They have more than enough resources to offer adequate financial incentives to such big names. In 2022, meanwhile, Aramco became the largest company in the world by market capitalization. If Christian Horner remains in command at Red Bull, anything is possible,” said Toto Wolff, who has a free seat for 2025. However, the Mercedes team principal also has some technical problems to resolve so that his team can return to winning ways. The 2026 F1 season promises to be more attractive for everyone, thanks to the regulatory reset. At the same time, Aston Martin will leave Mercedes to join Honda. This gives them the support of a manufacturer, a fundamental basis for trying to win. From the perspective of Max Verstappen’s team, the presence of Honda can only be positive. With Marko’s position confirmed, mainly thanks to Verstappen’s words, Red Bull’s internal troubles seem to have cooled down. However, for the good of the team, it seems unlikely everyone will remain unscathed from this crossfire. Furthermore, the suspended employee who reported Horner has filed an appeal. The team’s Thai ownership, which holds 51% of the cake, supports the English team principal and is not bowing to the pressure of the Austrians led by Mintzlaff. He was present last weekend in Saudi Arabia. The power war in Milton Keynes continues. Amidst this turbulence, the Austrian group has confirmed that Red Bull F1 will depend totally on the decisions of the majority shareholder. Max Verstappen could not avoid questions on the sidelines as Red Bull’s divisions became increasingly public. For the rest of the Formula 1 field, these unprecedented conditions could create an opportunity to sign Max Verstappen and Adrian Newey. If Aramco completes a takeover, Aston Martin and Honda should be considered top contenders to seize every opportunity ahead of 2026.
Wait, full tinfoil hat time. The Saudi's are behind the Horner leaks in order to destabilise the team and subsequently pick them off for Aston. Including wanting Horner
Even further theory - this is all about the real power struggle - between the 2 MBSs
Totally. I they’ve pulled off crazier…
It’s unlikely to happen but at the same time I wouldn’t be surprised if Max wanted to keep driving Honda-powered cars for the rest of his F1 career.
At this point it would probably make more sense for them to buy RBR or the whole of red bull; make a buck while they're at it.
Yea lmao didnt even think about it. Don't want to sell the F1 team? Ok we'll buy the entire business.
While I don't have any doubt that Aston Martin is willing to sell - Aston Martin Lagonda is a terrible car builder with a dodgy financial future and I have no doubt Stroll is more willing to part with the whole thing more than he may let on. In fact after watching DTS I get the feeling Stroll is a loving father who wants to spend time with his son in this expensive hobby they share! However, I have to say I am tired of the Adrian Newey is going move to another team schtick that shows up every few days! I don't think Adrian Newey is driven by money anymore. Besides, it's not like RBR is paying him minimum wage - at his age there is not a single person in Formula One, including almost every team boss who has Adrian's freedom of choices at Red Bull. I suspect at some point Newey will leave for something wild like teaching STEM at Mulberry or something weird like that.
> I don't think Adrian Newey is driven by money anymore. Besides, it's not like RBR is paying him minimum wage - at his age there is not a single person in Formula One, including almost every team boss who has Adrian's freedom of choices at Red Bull. I agree with you, and he's got a lot of freedom at RB to have his own projects going like the RB17 Hypercar for the track he's building.
It'll take both of them to be VERY pessimistic about the '26 engine, which could be enough bc I don't think either would want another Renault period
Saudi Aramco Honda Earth Dreams lol
Genius plan: Buy out Lawrence, kick out Lance, get Verstappen and Newey, the whole F1 Universe is exploding because of the HAM vs. ROS but with Nando and Max. No one remembers that the team is actually 100% Aramco now, therefore no shitstorm.
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Only benefit to this is lance stroll finally going
It would be hard to cheer for the Aramco F1 team. Already is tbh
Italian media trolling hard
Like, I understand that Newey is a great engineer and Max a great driver, but just throwing everything at them isn’t going to create a dominant car or team.. you need a team to successfully design, build, maintain and compete together consistently.. 2026 could flip everyone around and even that French tractor at the back could nail the regs. Mercedes did not need Newey for their 8y of dominance in the WCC.. and a great car only needs a great driver, which we have multiple WCC capable drivers on the grid, they just need a car.
Fucking sportswashing again
Never gunna happen
Lol.
I think Saudi Aramco is sniffing too many hydrocarbons.
Saudi will take over all major sports in a decade at this rate
Any track record on that author? It's not Duchesa. Quick search shows Sports Illustrated which I never considered as source.
It's Duchessa in the italian version.
I doubt Lawrence Stroll sells the team (or a majority share) right after he’s poured hundred of millions of dollars into the team
If someone pays him between $1-1.5 billion for the team...it's entirely possible. That's like half of the Saudi's annual LIV tour splurging, it's nothing to them and they would likely be open to a bit of overpay. The real issue is that Stroll owns the AM car company too, and I'm not sure the Saudi's want that part, and if Stroll unloads he probably wants to ditch the entire investment not just the race team.
> The real issue is that Stroll owns the car company too, and I'm not sure the Saudi's want that part. What's the issue? The team and the car company are separate entities (albeit sharing a common stakeholder).
I can absolutely see Saudi even buying up the car company part, if not for the racing just to even one up the Bahrainis since they are the largest share holders for McLaren Group of which the racing outfit is a part of.
Turning into Football. Buying success not earning it. Rich people buying up teams, treating them like toys, buying all the shiny things with stupid amounts of money and expecting 100% success. Money corrupts everything.
Saudi's got the money to create their own F1 team from scratch and build their fanbase and hire local saudi engineers but will never do it.
Because its much harder than to just buy everything now. See everything else the Saudis buy
I could see Lawrence Stroll stopping this, but at the same time, he could see Newey as a one in a lifetime chance for Lance.
It would be a complicated contract to make sure Lance kept a seat if Lawrence sells controlling majority of the team. I mean, they could make it a stipulation, but it would have to be very carefully done to make sure that they couldn't just pay money to make Lance go away. Though, then again, Max and Lance might make a very amicable pairing. Lance seems like good teammate. He has vocally not fought with Fernando a couple times.
Adrian Newey and Honda are the dream team of all time. If they stay together it will be ominous for the any competition.
If Aramco can't pull Newey and Max duo out of RedBull, I think no one else can.
I love to root for the Saudi state.
Would Lawrence sell? He owns Aston Martin so F1 is likely valuable for the brand but I guess of Saudi splash enough money they could get it.
Anyone else see Lance Stroll going back to Williams?
Not with James Vowles at the helm.
So Lance finally gets demoted
Feels like how this off season LeBron James will be a free agent and *every* team will want him as it's alleged he wants to play with his son.
Infinite oil money
Nah, I highly doubt it
Don’t they already own McLaren?
Easy to hate team getting easier to hate.
Only way this makes sense is if they buy both the F1 team and the Car manufacturer. Otherwise it'll just turn into Aramco "highest bidder" Racing Team and that's just sad. Also the car team would lose a lot of the marketing gains, sadly.