F1Krof wrote: ↑06 Mar 2023, 23:14
Mattchu wrote: ↑06 Mar 2023, 20:30
Do people not realize that Daimler AG (Mercedes parent company) have a large holding in Aston Martin Lagonda PLC. Tobias Moers, the ex head of AMG Mercedes is now CEO of Aston!
Merc have had their run in F1 and all the publicity that goes with it, the "brand" the bigwigs are pushing now is Aston Martin as can be seen by the safety car changes and factory/people investment.
If you think it`s all Lawrence Stroll behind this, think again, the full weight of the parent company is behind Aston and not the team that carries its name but is two thirds owned by Ineos and Wolff.
They`re now pretty much just another team making up the numbers, in my opinion Aston Martin will take their place in the top three and when the next concorde agreement comes round, just before the new engine regs (2026) I wouldn`t be surprised if the team gets sold or Daimler pull out completely.
The top engineers/people aren`t there anymore and haven`t been for a few years, Think Cowell(engine), Costa(design+engineering), Vowles(Srategy), Braun(Technical),Lowe (good with suspension), Lauda(all round good egg). James Allison steping back a bit and being replaced with Elliot can`t have helped either, I really don`t get a good F1 vibe off the bloke, he seems nice enough though, maybe that`s half the problem!
You got a good point. This is what I've been saying since last year basically. You're as good as the weakest member of the team. Merc is being run by interns and rushed seniors. I explained back in few posts. I've been working in different corporations and I saw this happening in each of the corporations I worked. It's almost impossible to hold tight the talent. You gotta to always bring and be in hunting mode of fresher talent, otherwise they'll hunt your most valuable experienced personnel and you'll be running the departments with interns and inexperienced personnel being in charge of very complicated situations with a huge degree of pressure. And it's almost like a downward spiral, the more you try the more the staff will run away.
Daimler's relationship with AML is arms length at best and the possible 20% stake is also conditional (yet to materialise).
AM car brand will only make sense for Merc or Daimler if they can make it profitable eventually. Between Merc and AM, Merc will be a much bigger fish for Daimler, so I do not see any chance of AM replacing Merc in the top 3 anytime soon.
https://www.ft.com/content/1abfa75b-1d3 ... fef1d06844
From this website, you can see who are the shareholders of Aston Martin. Chinese Geely stake in the company is even bigger than Benz, which at the moment is less than 2% after share dilution. You may be right that someone else may e bankrolling the AM project, but its certainly not Merc because Merc is a technology partner for AM, not a financial backer.
https://www.marketscreener.com/quote/st ... 8/company/