It has been speculated this morning that Sauber’s future in Formula 1 could be boosted if talks with Canadian billionaire Lawrence Stroll to buy in to the team are successful.
It is meant to be believed that Canadian billionaire Stroll (who made his money in the clothing industry with Polo Ralph Lauren and Tommy Hilfiger) is interested in getting involved in F1 and has been in discussions with Sauber. Stroll is worth to be worth $2.3 billion dollars and ranked as the 816th richest man in the world according to Forbes magazine.
Sauber’s Team Principal Monisha Kaltenborn has refused to comment on the situation when asked at the Italian Grand Prix. Stroll has a large collection of Ferraris and is a motor racing fan. He also owns the Mont Tremblant circuit in Canada and his son Lance is a member of the Ferrari Driver Academy and races in the Italian Formula 4 championship.
Even though nothing has been confirmed by either party it is clear that if the Sauber deal is successful, it would further cement the strong links Stroll has with the team’s engine supplier Ferrari and offer an obvious place for his son’s future motor racing career to develop.
The news of the Stroll’s interest comes at a time when a number of F1 teams are facing financial struggles. Over the past few months, the efforts to bring down costs through a cost cap or new regulations have failed, and most teams at the back of the grid are looking for new investors to boost their future.
Even the currently successful Williams team revealed at the weekend that it has posted losses of £20 million in the first six months of this year, partly due to a doubling of customer engine costs. And it is clear that something needs to be done about cost cutting in Formula One before it is too late and we start to lose some teams on the grid as a result of rising costs in the sport.
If the speculation is rumoured to be true, it could be a good move for the Sauber team. Not only would their future in the sport look more secure than it does now, it would have the necessary backing and investment needed in order to improve the team in the future too.
Alongside the prospect of Stroll’s son Lance potentially getting his first drive into Formula One if the deal goes through, it would make sense for Stroll to invest in Sauber as well as the ties that the Sauber team currently have with the Ferrari team who supply their engines.
But at the moment, we can only wait and see what develops with this situation and wait for confirmation from both parties regarding Stroll potentially investing in and buying Sauber. We shall have to wait and see what happens.
