Lewis Hamilton after Spanish GP qualifying — Photo: © LAT Images

Aston Martin

Aston Martin "would be crazy" not to consider signing Hamilton in the future

Hamilton is now contracted to Mercedes through to the end of 2023

Ian Parkes

Tuesday 13 July 2021 23:00

Aston Martin owner Lawrence Stroll has stated he "would be crazy" not to consider signing Lewis Hamilton in the future should the seven-time F1 champion consider an end-of-career switch from Mercedes.

Stroll is investing huge resources into turning his team into future world champions as a new factory and wind tunnel are currently in the process of being built, while an aggressive recruitment drive has been undertaken.

The billionaire entrepreneur, however, concedes such a collective will not bear fruit for a few years.

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In the face of strengthening the workforce from 400 at the end of its Force India guise to 800 and on par with the likes of Ferrari and Red Bull, luring Hamilton from Mercedes for one final hurrah would be his ultimate signing coup.

Although Hamilton recently signed a new two-year extension with Mercedes through to the end of 2023, a move to Aston Martin when it will be fervently pushing for race wins and titles at that stage is not beyond the realms of possibility, at least not in Stroll's eyes.

Asked if Hamilton were available one day, whether he is a driver he would sign, Stroll replied: "Absolutely. You’d have to be crazy not to want to have Lewis drive for you."

Aston Martin pushing Mercedes, Red Bull and Ferrari on personnel

Aston Martin has already made a number of key hires, notably Sebastian Vettel for this season, but most recently supplementing its technical staff with the recruitment of Dan Fallows as technical director and Andrew Alessi as head of technical operations, both from Red Bull.

Stroll believes Aston Martin will soon be on a par with Mercedes, Red Bull and Ferrari in terms of its technical workforce.

"As you know, we are hiring brilliant new senior and technical engineering talent all the time, and the result will be a technical and engineering strength in the company, and the depth, equal to if not better than any other Formula 1 team," added Stroll.

"We currently have approximately 500 employees. When I took over at Force India we had approximately 400. We've grown by about 100, and it's not just quantity it's quality.

"In Formula 1 it takes time to get people, as you are well aware, contracts, gardening leave etcetera, but in the near term, we plan to push that number to approximately 800 people.

"It shows the belief in our goals, in our targets, in our journey, the level of people that are joining us."