14. Lawrence Stroll

Lawrence Stroll earned his fortune in the fashion business, alongside long-term partner Silas Chou the men invested in Pierre Cardin, Polo Ralph Lauren, Tommy Hilfiger, and Michael Kors.

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Lawrence Stroll on signing Vettel, working with Schumacher, and his Aston Martin masterplan:

Tommy Hilfiger went from $5m of sales to $3bn in 13 years.

Success followed with clothing brand Michael Kors which was purchased for $100m and sold eight years later in a $20bn New York Stock float with Stroll banking an estimated £1bn +.

Behind the scenes, a charismatic man enjoys the good life with Hollywood A-Listers partying aboard his $200m superyacht Faith and multiple luxury homes around the world.

Lawrence Stroll lives the billionaire’s life witnessed by his lavish 60th birthday party at Villa Lysis in Capri with 250 guests back in 2019.

He has homes in Geneva, London, Quebec, and the Caribbean island of Mustique.

He owns a $220m collection of vintage Ferraris, with the jewel in the crown being the $25m ex-Mark Donohue/Roger Penske Ferrari 512m.

In the 1990s, he reportedly outraged neighbours in the posh Westmount section of Montreal by blasting rock to make room for an underground garage to house the collection.

Alas, the collection has been put up for sale as Stroll now wants to purchase a pack of Aston Martins, claiming, “cars are my passion, a huge part of my life, and Aston Martin has always had a special place in my heart.”

In August 2020, Stroll sold his superyacht to no other than one wait for it …………. Michael Latifi!

Stroll first became involved in F1 back in the nineties when he considered buying the Lotus F1 team.

In 2017 he paid for his son Lance’s seat at the Williams F1 team and an extensive private testing programme, with the bill coming in at a staggering $80m.

Then in 2018, he put together his consortium Yew Tree Investments to purchase the Force India F1 team renaming it Racing Point Force India.

In 2019 the team was renamed Racing Point, with Lance joining as a driver to compete alongside Sergio Perez.

Are you confused about the name? Well, you are not alone. Kimi Raikkonen at the 2019 practice session in Monaco ranted over the radio, “I have that Force India or whatever the f*ck it’s called blocking me.”

A new £25 million state-of-the-art factory on a greenfield site alongside its existing Silverstone base is currently under construction.

As part of Stroll’s master plan in Jan 2020, Yew Tree, with the addition of Lord Bamford, invested £182m into the Aston Martin car company in return for a 16.7% stake.

This investment led to a 10-year sponsorship deal with the Racing Point team, which was renamed Aston Martin F1 from 2021 onwards.

Several additional fundraising rounds in the car company have some notable Formula 1 names joining the party, including Sebastian Vettel, Toto Wolff, and Luca di Montezemolo.

To sell the sponsorship deal, Stroll convinced the other shareholders that, “The global spotlight of Formula 1 is second to none, and we will leverage this reach to showcase the Aston Martin brand in our key markets.

“It gives us the chance to meet and greet our customers at 22 locations (F1 races), to show them our new models, and get them to experience what a weekend’s like for the world of Aston Martin.”

Many financial analysts feel Stroll has his work cut out to turn around the Aston Martin car company which went bust seven times in its history. Still, Stroll commands confidence with Matthias Schmidt, an independent automotive analyst in Berlin, commenting, “Perhaps a touch of irrational mad passion with a large wallet isn’t as crazy as it sounds.”

Stroll is seen in the paddock at race weekends but rarely gives interviews except the notable scary, “we did nothing wrong” piece to the camera back at the British GP in August 2020.

Lawrence Stroll is known for his integrity and demanding but fair negotiations, so it was no surprise he broke cover after allegations of cheating by the F1 team to defend his reputation.

What influence does Lawrence Stroll have in F1?

Given that he owns a team and is investing heavily in the sport, his influence is considerable.

More importantly, he is a very well-connected individual with strong links to many so-called power brokers in the paddock.

Let us not forget he may have his sights on eventually buying the sport from Liberty Media!