- The sale brings fresh cash into the road car business.
- Aston Martin announced the move alongside weaker 2025 sales.
- The company expects earnings to fall short of forecasts.
Aston Martin, the road car manufacturer, and AMR GP, which runs the Aston Martin F1 team, are two separate companies that have just agreed to a rather surprising business deal. Late last week, Aston Martin said it will permanently sell the rights to use its name in Formula 1 to the team, operated by AMR GP Holdings, for £50 million ($67 million).
In practice, since billionaire Lawrence Stroll controls the team and is a major shareholder in the road car company, the £50 million ($67 million) largely amounts to a fresh cash injection from him into the business. Circular, perhaps, but effective.
Read: Honda And Aston Martin Might Build Something Wild For The Road
The deal still needs shareholder approval before it can proceed. Investors representing more than half of the company, including Geely and Mercedes-Benz, have already indicated they will vote in favor.
The timing is not accidental. The British automaker recently warned that its 2025 earnings will be worse than first expected. According to The Guardian, Aston Martin deliveries fell almost 10 percent last year to 5,448 examples, in part due to the ongoing US trade tariffs.
By the end of 2025, Aston Martin says it was sitting on £250 million ($338 million) in cash reserves. That is down £110 million ($148 million) from the £360 million ($486 million) it had at the start of 2025. Not catastrophic, but not exactly comfortable either.
One of Aston Martin’s most important models this year will be the Valhalla. Deliveries of the $1.1 million mid-engine hybrid, limited to 999 units worldwide, began late last year, and Aston expects to have handed over roughly 500 cars by the end of 2026.
First shown as a concept in 2019, the Valhalla pairs a 4.0-liter twin-turbo V8 with a gearbox-mounted e-motor and an eight-speed dual-clutch transmission. The combined output stands at 1,065 hp and 811 lb-ft of torque, enough to edge out the Ferrari 849 Testarossa and its 1,036 hp.
