Toto Wolff and Lawrence Stroll, the chieftains of both the Mercedes and Aston Martin F1 teams are being investigated for insider trading as per Canadian newspaper Le Journal De Montreal. The Mercedes F1 boss, Toto Wolff bought $35.24 million worth of shares in Aston Martin in April 2020 for a 0.95 per cent stake in the iconic British sports car maker. The case has been transferred to the British financial conduct authority for review from the Federal Financial Supervisory Authority.
Lawrence Stroll led a consortium in January 2020 to get a controlling stake in Aston Martin and then also rebranded his Racing Point F1 team to the Aston Martin brand. He ousted long time Aston Martin CEO Andy Palmer and replaced him with the former boss of Mercedes AMG Tobias Moers. Later in the year, Mercedes itself acquired an additional 20 per cent stake in Aston Martin in exchange for technical know-how, which led to questions being raised about insider trading considering Wolff gained massively from his investment.
Lawrence Stroll acquired the Racing Point F1 team in 2018 and then acquired Aston Martin in 2020
If Wolff had prior knowledge of the appointment of Tobias Moers and the Mercedes investment in the Aston Martin brand, then that's a clear-cut case of insider trading as Wolff gained handsomely as these events caused Aston Martin's value to go up. Since April 2020, Aston Martin's shares have gone up by 60 per cent.The Mercedes F1 engine division also serves as a customer to the Aston Martin F1 team. The 2020 and 2021 cars by Racing Point which now has become Aston Martin F1 were also based on the Mercedes W11 and W12 concepts.
Notably, the Mercedes and Aston Martin cars were the biggest losers with the floor change regulations in 2021 as their low rake cars lost downforce more than their competitors. This led to a situation where Aston Martin has taken a huge plunge to P7 in the constructor's championship while Mercedes for the first time in the turbo-hybrid era of the sport doesn't have the best car on the grid. There is certainly closeness between the two teams and their bosses as Wolff and Stroll are also known to be close to each other. Wolff isn't just the F1 boss of Mercedes but he is a 33 per cent co-owner and CEO of the team alongside Daimler and Ineos.
