Aston Martin may be languishing in the wrong half of the Formula One motor racing constructors’ championship, but Lawrence Stroll intends to change that with a new £200 million facility at Silverstone.
The Canadian tycoon who backs the grand prix outfit and his friend Lord Bamford, the multibillionaire chairman of the JCB diggers group, a co-sponsor of the Formula One team and a co-investor with Stroll in the listed Aston Martin Lagonda carmaker, yesterday inserted the first ceremonial spade into the ground in what will be an 18-month construction project.
The new 37,000 sq m facility — the size of five football pitches — will be the headquarters for the motor racing team and consolidates various premises that it owns. The new manufacturing facility is across the road from the Silverstone grand prix circuit in Northamptonshire, the home of British motor racing.
The Aston Martin team is wholly separate from the carmaker, although they share common ownership. The motor racing team is owned by Stroll, who is also Aston Martin Lagonda’s largest shareholder. The carmaker pays the team £25 million a year to carry its name.
The project will be Britain’s first all-new Formula One factory for 17 years, following construction of the McLaren Technology Centre in Woking, Surrey. “It’s a brand new, state-of-the-art, fit-for-purpose campus,” Stroll said. “It will fulfil my ambitions to be fighting for world championships.”
