Chapter 1347 - 507: Lynk & Co Lotus Saudi Aramco F1 Team

Chapter 1347: Chapter 507: Lynk & Co Lotus Saudi Aramco F1 Team

Various headlines came flooding in, overwhelming Qin Miao.

At the same time, Qin Miao felt a sense of relief.

After all, there had been no news from Geely for quite a while, and sometimes Qin Miao even wondered if Geely was having second thoughts and retreating from entering F1.

However, it turned out Qin Miao was overthinking it.

What surprised Qin Miao a bit was that Qin Miao had initially thought that if Geely were to join F1, their first choice should have been Aston Martin, given Geely indeed holds considerable shares in Aston Martin’s parent company, and Geely and Old Stroll are on the same board of directors, so they should be on speaking terms.

But unexpectedly, Geely ended up buying a large portion of Red Bull, and they only purchased 90% of the shares, not a full acquisition.

Being very curious, Qin Miao naturally clicked on the headlines to check out the details.

But it’s unclear what these journalism students are doing, as Qin Miao found no useful information after clicking in—just lots of redundant words.

So Qin Miao simply opened B Station and found a video by an uploader there.

Honestly, sometimes watching videos on B Station is better than reading the news.

After watching, Qin Miao roughly understood the ins and outs of the matter.

It’s not that Geely didn’t want to buy Aston Martin—in fact, Aston Martin’s team led by Old Stroll was the first team Geely approached.

However, Old Stroll’s asking price was a bit too high, and after Geely’s evaluation, they felt Old Stroll was taking advantage of the situation. Geely decided to terminate negotiations with Aston Martin after several internal meetings.

Yet entering F1 had already become one of Geely’s strategic goals.

With the current fiercely competitive domestic car sales market, although Geely can keep up, the pressure is significant. So, Geely plans to open up a promotional avenue via an alternate track by entering F1, with a strategy of exporting to turn domestic sales.

FIA actually quite welcomed Geely’s entry.

After all, the Chinese market is very appealing.

The mere presence of two Chinese drivers has caused FIA’s income in the Chinese region to soar by 500% over two years.

If there were a Chinese team, selling just the merchandise locally could make FIA a fortune.

A Chinese Grand Prix, or even adding another race, would generate unimaginable profits for China as far as FIA was concerned.

And FIA frequently received complaints from other teams about Red Bull and its associate teams.

After all, controlling two teams gave Red Bull Group an unfair advantage over others.

Though it was said that Red Bull and its associate teams didn’t exchange critical data, with FIA staff overseeing it,

certain design aspects of the cars couldn’t be communicated or copied, but some blatant mistakes and lessons learned through trial and error couldn’t be detected by FIA once shared.

So to some extent, the associate team served as Red Bull’s testing ground for mistakes.

This not only frustrated other F1 teams but also made FIA aware of Red Bull’s significant advantage, prompting them to want Red Bull to sell its associate team.

However, Red Bull had a counterargument, saying that they were the ones urged to take over the associate team when the F1 environment was unfavorable, and now that it’s improved, they were being asked to sell—what kind of reasoning was that?

Thus, Geely’s entry provided a golden opportunity for FIA.

Upon learning about Geely’s strong interest in entering F1, FIA’s Ben Sulayem approached Geely to meet with Red Bull Group.

Recently, there had been some questioning within the Red Bull Group about the associate team’s existence.

In 2021, the associate team maintained a 6th place in team rankings, but by 2022, they had fallen to 8th, a significant decline.

Compared to Red Bull, the associate team indeed appeared quite mediocre.

Of course, this was just a tactic for Red Bull Group to address the associate team, without actual intent to sell.

But at that moment, FIA forcefully intervened, connecting Red Bull and Geely.

Moreover, this time, FIA targeted not Austria’s Red Bull but the major shareholder, Tai Niu.

After all, being part of the Confucian culture circle, coupled with FIA’s facilitation and persuasion, Geely’s sincerity, and the unprofitable associate team, the Xu Shu’en Clan was tempted by Geely’s offer.

But Austria’s Red Bull strongly opposed it, as they valued the F1 team’s performance highly, and the associate team’s presence offered them great advantages.

Tai Niu had no good solutions when they learned about Red Bull’s strong objections.

Though the Xu Shu’en Clan was the major shareholder, Red Bull wasn’t solely under their control.

So around the Singapore Grand Prix period, Tai Niu brought Geely and FIA to Austria.

What specifically was discussed or exchanged during the trip to Austria remains unknown.

But it’s certain that Geely successfully acquired 90% of the associate team’s shares, securing a place in F1.

As for the remaining 10% of shares,