F1: Aston Martin Wants To Win World Title By 2026 

Aston Martin is aiming to become a Formula 1 world championship team by 2026, five years after rebranding to the legendary UK marquee. The team which was formerly known as Racing Point F1, finds itself struggling in P6 for the world championship after coming close to P3 in 2020 as Racing Point. Its CEO Otmar Szafnauer has reiterated that the intention is to become competitive in the next couple of years challenging for the world title, but if the title even takes as long as five years, it will be considered a success. 

"If we could be a World Championship contender in three to four years, it would be a success. I think we would consider winning the World Championship within five years as a success. If we look at the teams that have recently won multiple world championships in a row, it took Mercedes four years to buy Brawn. And as far as I can remember, the time frame at Red Bull after buying Jaguar Racing was a similar one, also three to four years," he told motorsport-total.com. 

In 2021, Aston Martin brings in the services of 4-time world champion Sebastian Vettel from Ferrari who seems hungry to win his fifth world title. In the last two races, the 33-year-old German has turned back the clock with impressive P5 and P2 finishes that saw him relentlessly winning 4-world titles on the trot with Red Bull. 

The new Aston Martin livery has been turning heads

Szafnauer has cited the time it took both Mercedes and Red Bull to turn into world championship-winning outfits from the time they were acquired. Red Bull acquired the Jaguar team that was originally the Stewart team. Mercedes acquired the BAR-Honda team which turned to Brawn GP in 2009 to win the world title before being rebranded as Mercedes. 

Racing Point has gone through many eras. It was family founded as the Jordan F1 team under Eddie Jordan, but most recently was the Force India F1 team till it being bailed out of a financial crisis by Lawrence Stroll who rebranded it first Racing Point and then got in the Aston Martin branding after he became the executive chairman of the Aston Martin brand. 

To achieve this Szafnauer has revealed that the team is increasing its workforce from 500 people to around 800 people in an era when teams like Ferrari, Red Bull and Mercedes are cutting costs and laying off people. He also revealed the team is building its own wind tunnel.