The purchase of newcastlethe millionaire signing of Cristiano Ronaldo by Al-Nassr, the candidacy for World Cup 2034… Saudi Arabia He wants to get fully into the world of sports just like he did Qatar at the time with the acquisition of Paris Saint-Germain, the new ‘galactics’ and the finishing touch with the World Cup.
Parallel to the commitment to soccer, the Asian country also wants to become the Formula 1 nerve centertheir equipment and their factories.
The idea is to create a technology park in neoma projected territory in Tabuk province to be the first smart city.
For this, they want the teams to have their headquarters there and the strongest and most logical bet leads to Aston Martina team in which Saudi Arabia is the main investor, since Fernando Alonsotwo-time world champion and media star of the ‘Great Circus’.
This year the Saudi company Aramco reached a long-term agreement in exchange for 16.7% of the shares of Lawrence Stroll’s team, becoming the second largest shareholder after Lance’s father (he has 18.3% of the shares).
To this end, the Saudi Arabian Sovereign Wealth Fund has invested 700 million dollars in the company.
“With all the investments we are making in cars, we are going in that direction. Hopefully we can open a headquarters in Saudi Arabia or hire people to help us make vehicles and technology. We have a long-term program of 20 years, that We hope to launch at the end of 2023 or at the beginning of 24″said the president of the Saudi Automobile Federation, the Prince Khalid Bin Sultan Al Faisalin an interview in ‘Motor Sport Magazine’.
“Our goal is not only to host international events, we want to participate even more. We want to have engineers, we want to have mechanics, we want to build cars, we want to be creative.”
The main stumbling block for Saudi Arabia is that Aston Martin is finishing a state-of-the-art factory with its own wind tunnel in Silverstonewhich, a priori, would make it very difficult to move to the Asian country, although money can do everything.
From Jeddah it is also taken into account McLarena team from which they have a small package of shares and which is not going through its best economic moment after the pandemic.
