Why Racing Point's owner buying Aston Martin would make sense

Not long after my lodger-turned-Formula-1-driver Eddie Irvine left Jordan to join Ferrari, Eddie Jordan got to know the then-40-year-old Lawrence Stroll, whose Tommy Hilfiger fashion company was sponsoring the Scuderia.

Never one to waste time, there soon followed the inevitable request from EJ to produce a proposal, dispatched to Stroll, inviting him to bring his financial support to Jordan Grand Prix. I still have the document on a 3.5-inch floppy disk somewhere in my garage.

Although Stroll declined, 20 years later it is one of life's neater outcomes that the Canadian billionaire has ended up owning the team outright.

It's a good thing he has a passion for motorsport, for his money came in handy at Williams a couple of years back before he saved Force India - or at least its assets.

The news, revealed by Autocar in December, that he has targeted a takeover of Aston Martin makes complete sense. This is a man who thinks big and has spent his career unlocking the value in brands.

A former Ralph Lauren executive, Stroll first partnered with Hong Kong investor Silas Chou in 1989 when they set about turning Tommy Hilfiger into a global success story.

Through their investment company, Sportswear Holdings, they later added Michael Kors to their portfolio, floating it on the New York stock exchange in 2011 and selling their remaining 5.7% holding in 2014, by which time the business was worth almost $15billion.

All the while Stroll has been able to invest some hobby money in his passion for racing. Purchasing Canada's Mont-Tremblant circuit (above) in 2000 was one such move, another his creation of a to-die-for collection of Ferraris.

The bid to acquire a stake in Aston Martin is a typical piece of strategic thinking on Stroll's part, showing that his business instincts have not been clouded by his love of the sport.

On the contrary, it shows he is on the lookout for deals that are good for business and great for the team.

Racing Point has always punched far above its weight, usually in spite of rather than because of its shareholders. Setting aside changes of names and ownership, the team has finished in the top six in the constructors' championship 16 times since 1991 - remarkable considering its financial plight on occasion.

A future as Aston Martin would enable it to take on a branding status on par with its proven racing ability.

Stroll has seen an opportunity because Aston Martin's high-profile stock market flotation in October 2018 proved to be, as analyst Jordan Hiscott of Ayondo Markets succinctly described it, 'an abject failure'.

It launched at £19 per share, that figure was halved within six months, and then it fell off a cliff last July when the company posted a £78.8million half-year loss - due in part to the £136m cost of going public.

It was forced to take on additional debt, and further losses in the third quarter of 2019 left Aston Martin looking decidedly vulnerable with 70% wiped off the company's value since flotation.

Aston's partnership with Red Bull, championed by its CEO Dr Andy Palmer, is in jeopardy if Stroll gets his way, but it could result in a rebranded Racing Point vaulting into the big time.

For a man with 30 years of experience in transforming companies it's a tantalising opportunity to take Aston Martin to the next level and simultaneously threaten the status quo in Formula 1.