Aston Martin’s inception in Formula 1 has brought some great fortunes to Lawrence Stroll and Otmar Szafnauer. As it happened, they never leave a chance to boast about their new sponsorship deals and increased revenues.
“Becoming Aston Martin has attracted them”- said Otmar Szafnauer, talking about his team’s new sponsorship deals amidst the rebranding process.
We must mention that Aston Martin has recently secured a deal with the IT giant Cognizant. As for Otmar Szafnauer, IT is the future of F1, and it’s the team’s name that has attracted all such striking deals.
“They all want to be part of this journey that we’re on, and for sure, Aston Martin, the name and what we’re trying to do and what our future plans are, have attracted a lot of sponsors this year,” Szafnauer said.
“I think becoming Aston Martin has attracted them, and also, the existing ones are happy we are taking the direction that we’re taking.”
Stroll has done a brilliant job while attracting investors amidst the Pandemic situation
Otmar Szafnauer and Lawrence stroll
Aston Martin (formerly known as ‘Racing point’) was a part of the Force India set up two years back. Subsequently, Lawrence stroll took over and rebranded the team with a new name (Aston Martin) for the 2021 season.
Thenceforth, Stroll has done a commendable job while alluring several big sponsors to the team’s fold. Further, the current pandemic situation turned out to be a significant barrier for corporates while putting through their investments in new projects.
According to Szafnauer, the credit goes mainly to Stroll to secure all the investor’s and sponsors’ faith.
“Some of it is definitely [down to] Aston Martin, and some of it is Lawrence — the owner’s ambition,” said Szafnauer. “So it’s got to be a combination of the two. I think [the signing of] Sebastian is secondary to that, its second order, but it does go to show our ambition.”
“If we have a continuation of the year we had last year, being the third-fastest car in most of the races, finishing on the podium multiple times, having a race win, or even contesting for race wins, that’s a success for us,” said Szafnauer.
Aston Martin made the most out of the latest sponsorship deals
Aston Martin has recently attracted some big names like Cognizant, Sentinel One, and Asahi’s non-alcoholic beer brand Peroni Libera 0.0% to their team fold,
Besides, they have recently announced a multi-year partnership deal with Nasdaq-listed software company NetApp.
Mark Gallagher, who stood as the team’s marketing head during the 90s( under the name ‘Jordan’), termed the Cognizant deal as “one of the most significant sponsorship deals in the post-tobacco era”.
Asahi Europe and International CEO Paolo Lanzarotti also put his big hopes towards their recent association with Aston Martin.
“The Aston Martin entry was a critical decision for us. It is a phenomenal brand,” he said. “The team composition obviously has an effect as well, but it goes team branding first for us.”
Former title sponsors, BWT is still sponsoring the Canadian driver Lance Stroll, son of Aston Martin’s owner Lawrence Stroll.
How are things shaping up for Aston martin on the commercial side?
The recent sponsorship deals came when the COVID-19 pandemic drastically hit the revenues of both teams. While Aston Martin is still securing new sponsorship deals, other teams are still struggling with their financial hiccups.
“Some of it is definitely (down to) Aston Martin and some of it is Lawrence — the owner´s ambition,” said Szafnauer. “So it´s got to be a combination of the two“.
Stroll stands as the executive chairperson of Aston Martin. Besides, he is a key investor in the loss-making carmaker, which got a strong association with champions Mercedes. On the performance part, Racing Point finished fourth overall in 2020 while securing their solitary win in Bahrain.
Regardless of all the big deals, Aston Martin is yet to prove its prowess on the racing track. Hence, both the team and the owners must pull up their socks for every upcoming challenge in the 2021 season.
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