Aston Martin has agreed to sell the naming rights to its Formula One team to its owner, Lawrence Stroll’s AMR GP Holdings, for £50 million, as the luxury carmaker warned of worse-than-expected financial results for 2025. The move, announced Friday, is the latest attempt to bolster the company’s finances amid mounting debts and declining sales.
The British manufacturer said its earnings for 2025 would fall short of City forecasts, marking its fifth profit warning since September 2024. Analysts had anticipated a loss of £184 million, but the company now expects a larger shortfall. Shares in Aston Martin initially fell 4% on the news before partially recovering, closing down 2%.
The deal to sell the F1 naming rights requires shareholder approval, but appears likely to pass. Investors holding over 50% of the company, including Stroll’s Yew Tree Investments, Geely, and Mercedes-Benz, have already signaled their support, according to the company.
Lawrence Stroll, who is both executive chairman of Aston Martin and owner of the Formula One team, first took a significant stake in the company in 2020 through Yew Tree Investments, investing £182 million for a 16.7% share. He has since increased his ownership to 32%, and this latest transaction will further solidify his control.
The sale of the naming rights is effectively an injection of funds from Stroll into the struggling car business. Aston Martin delivered 5,448 cars in 2025, a nearly 10% decrease from the previous year. The company cited the impact of US tariffs and delays in delivering special edition models as key factors contributing to the decline.
The imposition of a 25% tariff on car imports by the Trump administration in April 2024 significantly increased costs for Aston Martin in the US market. A subsequent agreement in May 2025 capped duties on 100,000 British-made cars at 10%, offering some relief, but the damage had already been done.
In October 2025, Aston Martin announced a £300 million reduction in its investment plans and cuts to spending on new car development, directly attributing the move to the impact of tariffs and weak demand in China. At the time, the company called for “more proactive support” from the British government to protect manufacturers like itself.
Despite the financial challenges, Aston Martin highlighted a potential positive development: the planned delivery of approximately 500 Valhalla models in 2026. Priced at £850,000 each, with only 999 to be produced, more than half have already been sold.
The company is likewise preparing for its first season with Honda power units, beginning in 2026, and the arrival of Adrian Newey as team principal and managing technical partner. Still, pre-season testing in Bahrain revealed difficulties, with Honda acknowledging issues with the new power unit integration.
