LONDON – British luxury carmaker Aston Martin unveiled a new Formula One car on Wednesday before returning to world-renowned car racing.
The Aston Martin Cognizant F1 team unveiled the AMR21 car at a virtual event broadcast from London. The AMR21 will take part in the Formula One World Championship in 2021, which kicks off on March 28 in Bahrain.
Formula One is watched by millions of fans around the world and everyone from Ferrari to BMW to Mercedes has used the sport to promote the strength of their brand.
Aston Martin 2021 F1 Challenger – the AMR21.
Source: Aston Martin
Aston Martin has struggled financially and its share price on the London Stock Exchange fell sharply in 2020. The company hopes that Formula One will increase sales of Aston Martin cars such as the DB11, the Vanquish and the Vantage.
“Having a platform like Formula One to market our initiatives, showcase our technology and ultimately bring the technology into our motor vehicles … is a big game changer,” said Aston Martin CEO Lawrence Stroll. and said: monumental “moment.
Stroll acquired the Formula One team two-and-a-half years ago and became Aston Martin’s executive chairman last April, taking a majority stake in the company in the process.
“The first step was to raise the funding to implement our business plan for the next five years,” he told CNBC’s Julianna Tatelbaum. “We raised $ 800 million in equity, with most of it from myself and my consortium. It was for a business plan that brings us to 10,000 cars, $ 2 billion volume and $ 500 million EBITDA over the next four years. “
According to Stroll, Aston Martin has a fantastic order book for its sports cars and the new DBX, which is Aston Martin’s first SUV. He added that variants of the DBX will come in the near future and that a hybrid will be introduced in the fourth quarter of 2021.
Aston Martin’s last Grand Prix car was the DBR5, driven by Roy Salvadori and Maurice Trintignant in the 1960 British Grand Prix.
Aston Martin 2021 F1 Challenger – the AMR21.
Source: Aston Martin
The new car is driven by German Sebastian Vettel and Canada’s Lance Stroll.
“Even though I have raced for four Formula One teams for years, it gives me a sense of excitement to start a new season with a new team,” Vettel said in a statement.
“I always watched the competition and this team consistently impressed me with what they could do without the biggest budget.”
Vettel said he was immediately motivated to join the team when approached by Stroll, and Otmar Szafnauer, the CEO of the Aston Martin Formula One team.
The AMR21 makes its track debut on Thursday before traveling from Bahrain to Bahrain before the Grand Prix next week.
The team’s main sponsor is IT giant Cognizant. Other sponsors include beer maker Peroni, cryptocurrency website Crypto.com and cybersecurity firm SentinelOne.
Owned by Liberty Media, Formula One’s revenue hit $ 877 million last year, down 43% due to the Covid-19 pandemic.