Saudis unlucky in advance: This is how Stroll reacts to takeover rumour

According to rumours, Saudi state-owned oil company Aramco wants to buy the Aston Martin F1 team from the current consortium led by businessman Lawrence Stroll. A spokesman for the oil company would neither confirm nor deny the story published in Italian media, they told GPblog a day earlier. Stroll meanwhile let it be known that should Aramco approach him, the answer is going to be short but firm: "No!

It is no secret that the Saudi royal family is increasingly emphatically trying to get a finger in Formula 1. A Grand Prix is already in place, they also host the famous Dakar Rally, but policymakers would love to host their own F1 team within the country's borders. Given Aramco's main sponsorship with Aston Martin, the link was obviously easy to make. But if the state-owned company does indeed come forward to buy the shares, Lawrence Stroll has no intention of making a sale.

Stroll wants to stay with Aston Martin for a very long time

"You don’t go spending hundreds of millions of pounds, building the greatest new Formula 1 campus, if you’re about to leave the business, and you don’t go hiring another 400 of the greatest employees if you’re about to leave the business," the Canadian revealed.

"I’ve proven through my commitment - and it could not be any further from the truth - that I have any interest in ever not being the majority shareholder of this team for a very, very, very, very long time, and it is the same with the road car company. I plan to run these businesses for many, many years. I’m at the beginning of the journey on both," Stroll Sr concluded.