The signing of Cristiano Ronaldo for him Al Nassr is the first step of the plan Saudi Arabia to turn the Arab country into a power in the world of sports. After football, the main efforts are focused on investment in the Formula 1. An investment that has already started with a Grand Prix that has been held twice in jeddahand with the sponsorship of Aston Martin Y McLaren.
Saudi Arabia wants teams like Aston Martin and McLaren to move to the futuristic city of neoma planned territory in the province of Tabuk where they hope to incorporate the most avant-garde technologies, so that it becomes the first smart city. It would also work as a tourist destination. Money is not a problem for Saudi Arabia, which wants to replicate the model of Qatar with the acquisition of psg in 2011, and with the final touch of the 2022 World Cup. For now, they have bought the Newcastle Unitedwhich is third in the Premier League.
It should be noted that Saudi Arabia wants to host the World Cup 2034 since that of 2030 seems complicated, and both the candidacies of Spain and Portugal as well as those of Argentina, Uruguay, Paraguay and Chile start with an advantage. At the moment, efforts are focused on investing huge amounts of money and attracting top-renowned figures such as Cristiano Ronaldo either Fernando Alonso.
Aramco is AM’s second largest shareholder
The signing of the Asturian by Aston Martin is quite an attraction at the level of advertising and marketing, and Saudi Arabia, the main investor in the team of Lawrence StrollYou don’t want to miss it. Last season, the Saudi oil company Aramco signed a long-term agreement in exchange for the 16.7% of the team’s shares. Lawrence Stroll, current owner of Aston Martin and father of Alonso’s future partner, remains the main shareholder with 18.3% of the shares.
The Saudi Arabian Sovereign Wealth Fund has invested 700 million dollars in the company, with the aim of promoting the name of Saudi Arabia in the most followed automobile competition in the world. He knows that things with Aston Martin will not be easy, as the English team is already building a state-of-the-art factory with a wind tunnel included in Silverstone. Even so, they do not lose hope and, in the meantime, they try to convince McLaren to let themselves be tempted.
Nowadays, seven of the ten teams in the great circus are based in England: only Ferrari, Alpha Tauri and Haas are outside the islands. The president of the Saudi Automobile Federation, the Prince Khalid Bin Sultan Al Faisalhas assured that the Government wants to create a “nerve center” for the world of motoring and motorcycling.
The creation of a nerve center
“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 20 year long term program, which we hope to launch at the end of 2023 or at the beginning of 2024. 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,” he says. bin sultan.
The Muslim country has minority shares in McLaren, but the financial difficulties of the McLaren team Woking can facilitate a possible negotiation. The wind tunnel of the team he chairs Zak Brown won’t be ready until year 2025. Financial problems and the pandemic have delayed its premiere, which was scheduled for 2021. Saudi Arabia does not want to miss out on the opportunity and, if it cannot be with Aston Martin and Fernando Alonso, it will try it with the legendary Woking team, which it saw win in your day to Ayrton Senna, Alain Prost either lewis hamilton. It remains to be seen if legends can also be bought.