Aston Martin

**Aston Martin FE UK** is the Formula Earth works team of British company Racing Point UK Limited. Founded in 2018 as Racing Point when the company led by Lawrence Stroll bought the assets of Force India, who went bankrupt during the 2018 season and subsequently expelled, they initially used Force India cars before creating their own from 2019 onwards. In 2021, following Stroll's investment in the Aston Martin brand, the team became Aston Martin, racing as such onwards, with a second Racing Point team being created in Formula International. The team in general has been competitive in all of their seasons, but have endured ups and downs in performances despite many high profile signings all over the years.

## Formula 1 History

Racing Point entered mid-season of 2018 following the disqualification and bankruptcy of the long-standing Force India team. Lawrence Stroll, father of eventual driver Lance Stroll, took over the assets and used them as the basis for the creation of Racing Point. They completed the 2018 year as Racing Point Force India due to using the Force India cars, before removing the name and becoming solely Racing Point in 2019, creating their own cars onwards.

## 2020: The last year as Racing Point

2020 was their last year using the Racing Point name, as Lawrence Stroll had invested in the Aston Martin car company, then-sponsor of Red Bull. Following this, the team announced its renaming as Aston Martin from 2021 onwards, with the brand leaving Red Bull as a sponsor. The last year as Racing Point saw star driver Sergio Perez breaking his leg at Zandvoort, with surprise returnee Nico Hulkenberg. Within the season, Hulkenberg scored his first and only podium in FE, as well as the team's first. Stroll on the other hand underperformed and only scored 20 points.

## 2021-2022: Rebranding and difficult restart

Despite his performances, Hulkenberg decided to sign for Sauber for his last year in Formula Earth, which meant Perez and Stroll were retained amidst the much-anticipated rebranding. The first two years of the new era were tough, with the team stuck in the midfield and barely scoring top 5 finishes. Perez did score some notable results, but Stroll again underperformed and was announced that he would be relegated to Racing Point at FI from 2023 onwards.

## 2023-2026: Rising to the upper midfield

In 2023, British driver Billy Mathman was signed to replace Stroll. During that year, the team scored their first podiums since 2020, with Perez scoring 1 podium and Mathman 2, becoming rookie of the year. Aston Martin finished 5th in the standings, beating Renault and Alpha Tauri. The duo were kept for 2024, but failed to generate the same success as with 2023., but Perez managed to beat Mercedes driver Ivan Marincic. With the Mexican aging, he left the team and was replaced by former McLaren star Lando Norris in 2025, who scored the team's only podium of the year., followed by an improved 2026 year with 3 podiums and being the best team of the midfield during that year.

## 2027-2032: Reaching the big teams

In 2027, Aston Martin made a far more competitive car, becoming by raw pace the third best team of the year and managed to finish in the top 3 in the standings. Norris also scored the team's first ever win in Sochi and scored 5 more podiums on his way to fifth place in the standings, with Mathman scoring five more podiums. Mathman moved to Ferrari for 2028, with Williams driver Rory Douglas replacing him. Aston Martin once again stayed in the top 5, with Norris scoring yet another win and Douglas scoring his first career podiums. In the next season, Norrris scored the team's third win, but finished behind Douglas, who turned out to be more consistent during that year. Despite being beaten by Max Verstappen of Renault, they managed to beat Renault in the team due to the poor performances of Marco Aurelio.

The rise of Shadow up the grid meant that Aston Martin had further competition, and they were beaten by them for 4th place. In fact, Norris, who was past his best years struggled badly and announced his departure from the team at the end of the year. It was also the first year since 2036 that Aston Martin failed to score any wins. Hungarian Roman Massey was signed despite his poor performances at Campos the previous year and the team fell down further, failing to score podiums. However, with the new regulations of 2036, they rose up the grid thanks to them making a competitive car. They also replaced the departing Douglas with former Mercedes driver Andrei Aimansha. In the early year, Aimansha and Massey seemed like title contenders, with the Russian even leading the standings for a while. However, due to poor form in the later races, they ended in third in the standings, with Aimansha in fifth and Massey in eighth.

## 2033-2037: Decline and reorganization

Following the retirement of Aimansha and the departure of Massey, the team signed the veteran duo of Verstappen and George Russell for 2033. This proved to be a bad decision, as both drivers were past their best and were unable to ulitilse the true power of the car, who was claimed to be one of the best of the grid in raw pace. Despite the criticism, both drivers were kept for 2034, with the same results.

Both of them retired at the end of the year, with a change in the technical board occuring, including the promotion of Racing Point's technical director to the first team. The first two signings of the new era were Racing Point drivers Jonathan Thor and Suresh Bhandari, both of them being rookies in FE. Both of them struggled on their first seasons, but Thor turned out to be the more impressive of the two. Bhandari, who was tipped for stardom, struggled badly and was ousted at the end of the year. He was replaced by Simone Cimorelli for 2036. Thor started the year strongly with 2 podiums but faded out in the second half of the season, finishing 9th. Cimorelli was less consistent than Thor, but scored the team's only win at Monza, Cimorelli's home race. The duo was kept for 2037, but performances worsened due to the team having a weaker car.

## 2038-present: Established in the upper midfield

Cimorelli was retained for one final year and the team made a huge signing by getting Giovanni de Ziel, and most notably making him the highest-paid driver in the history of the sport, with a 500k-per race 2-year contract. Despite their advanced age, both de Ziel and Cimorelli showed competitive speed, and the Dutchman even won races and finished in a stellar 5th place. Cimorelli was also competitive and narrowly missed a placement in the top 10 in the standings.

Cimorelli retired in the end of the year and Aidan McKay, whose McLaren contract expired, joined on an 1-year deal. The team struggled with a worse car, scoring just 47 points, with McKay beating de Ziel. Both drivers left after their contracts expired, with de Ziel retiring from the sport. For 2040, Guilherme Nogueira and Raviraj Kudmal were signed on free transfers, with the former's team Alpha Tauri collapsing and the latter being a replacement driver at Harvard. With an improved car, Nogueira scored 3 podiums and finished in 8th with 98 points. Kudmal struggled on his return to FE despite showing flashes of his old ability and finished down in 16th, with Aston Martin being beaten by McLaren for 5th.

## Drivers

* Sergio Perez (2020-2025)
* Nico Hulkenberg (2020)
* Lance Stroll (2020-2022)
* Billy Mathman (2023-2027)
* Lando Norris (2025-2030)
* Rory Douglas (2028-2031)
* Roman Massey (2031-2032)
* Andrei Aimansha (2032)
* George Russell (2033-2034)
* Max Verstappen (2033-2034)
* Jonathan Thor (2035-2037)
* Suresh Bhandari (2035)
* Simone Cimorelli (2036-2038)
* Giovanni de Ziel (2038-2039)
* Aidan McKay (2039)
* Guilherme Nogueira (2040-present)
* Raviraj Kudmal (2040-present)