Verstappen with Saudi millions to Aston Martin: This is the reaction!

A remarkable rumour and an equally remarkable reaction to it: Title sponsor Aramco reportedly have long-terms plans to take over Aston Martin's F1 team, according to Italian Formu1a.Uno, and then entice Max Verstappen as well as Adrian Newey to switch. GPblog asked the Saudi oil company for a comment and got a remarkable answer.

Last November, co-owner Lawrence Stroll of the British F1 team sold a minority stake to private equity firm Arctos Partners. Since then, there have been rumours in the paddock that the stone-rich Stroll is planning to dispose of a larger portion of his shareholding. At the same time, the Saudis are known to be trying to buy into Formula 1 in some way.

Saudi wants to buy into Formula 1

So it came a year ago that an attempt was made through state-owned Aramco to buy the commercial rights of Formula 1 from Liberty Media. A deal did not materialise. However, Aramco did become title sponsor of Aston Martin. It is also clear that the Saudis - following the example of Bahrain's royal family - (McLaren) would like to own their own F1 team. Aston Martin would be the logical candidate for a takeover because of their sponsorship, although it is unknown whether the other shareholders are also interested in selling their shares to Aramco.

In any case, Aramco's plans would be grand. If the company have control over the racing team for which Fernando Alonso and Lance Stroll currently compete, an attempt would be made - no doubt at great expense - to sign Max Verstappen and master designer Adrian Newey at Red Bull Racing.

GPblog sought contact with Aramco and put several questions to the company: 'Is it true that you want to buy Aston Martin F1? Do you want to attract Verstappen and Newey next? And how much are you willing to pay for everything?' To all these questions, Aramco responded with: "Aramco declines to comment."

So that is not a resounding 'yes' to whether there is indeed something in the pipeline. Nor is it a firm denial. To be continued, no doubt.