Gabriele Hartshorne-Mehl, a financier at McGill University, contributed to this article.
Aston Martin Aramco Formula One is the fastest developing on the grid.
The team has noticed huge innovations on the track since 2020, reaching fifth place in 2023. Off the track, his refreshing vision of strategy and determination to achieve long-term logo awareness would soon propel Aston Martin to the prestige of a worthy competitor to Red Bull and Ferrari.
“Our goal would be to keep improving. We hope to be fourth this year, third next year and then in 2026, with the new regulations and our inline wind tunnel, to compete for the world championship,” says Jefferson Slack. General Manager of Sales & Marketing at Aston. Martin Aramco Formula 1.
I was lucky enough to sit down with him on my weekly radio show, CEO Series, which airs across Canada on Bell Media on Saturdays and Sundays, and runs as a podcast on Mondays.
With last week’s announcement of Fernando Alonso’s contract extension until 2026, which Alonso called a “life project”, it is evident that the two-time world champion also believes that Aston Martin’s future is yet to come.
When Slack joined Montreal-born Lawrence Stroll’s Racing Point Formula 1 team in 2020, they set a vision for the team’s future. “We were looking for the most inclusive unique logo in the world,” he says.
According to Slack, Stroll’s genius was to understand and nurture the iconic and prestigious Aston Martin, create a team with the same essence, and then identify methods to grow the fan base and its new identity into a well-known calling in F1. In marketing and sporting control outside of F1, Slack was well-equipped to help rebuild Stroll’s team.
Slack, an alumnus of Dartmouth University and Johns Hopkins, joined a sports marketing company, ProServ, after graduation, where he worked with Michael Jordan, a user at the firm. There, he learned the best practices of the NBA, which according to Slack is the most productive sports organization in the world. He introduced those practices as new methods of expansion in European football when he later went on to work at Inter Milan in Italy and then at Wasserman Media and IMG in London.
“I’ve been very fortunate in my career, I’ve had a lot of smart experiences. I think it’s my favorite so far,” says Slack in reference to his current position at Aston Martin Aramco Formula One. He spent a lot of time learning about the brand, what it means to consumers, and how they deserve to implement it in their new business.
Aston Martin focuses on a sector of the market for luxury, exclusivity and performance. He is well known for his 60-year deal with 007: Aston Martin cars have played a leading role in thirteen films in the James Bond series.
Aston Martin’s new strategy is to fuse this symbol of luxury with maximum functionality, necessarily the F1 team as a vehicle to expand and manufacture impressive efficiencies and functionalities in its overall automotive production.
Slack believes that the F1 team can also make Aston Martin more available to everyone: “Most people will never buy an Aston Martin in their lifetime. . . We wanted to create a funnel where, even if it was just watching the race on TV or watching the race or buying a cap, they felt part of that team.
F1 is a much more closed world than other gaming industries. By definition, the small number of teams and higher access prices mean that most people have been playing for a long time. They all compete against each other in each race, forming a different competitive layout than many other professional games, whose groups only compete twice per season. There is an F1-only bubble because of those circumstances, Slack describes.
Although it hasn’t raced as long as some of its competitors, the slightest bit of Aston Martin experience could have been beneficial. Moving from F1 to the outside to the grid is a way to protect yourself from the groupthink coming from inside F1. bubble.
One of the new goals that Slack set itself to reform the team was to achieve maximum progressivity on the grid. “That was one of my considerations when I took on this position. It was a very European sport, older and usually masculine. Now it’s replaced so a lot,” he says.
Diversity is a core component of Aston Martin, embedded in its recruitment practices and mentoring structures. Slack believes that other people with other reports and backgrounds create diversity of ideas in the discussion, which in turn creates a better outcome.
In addition, those Americans help the team understand how to market sectors where they previously didn’t know how to succeed. “It’s not just the right thing to do. It’s also very smart for business and makes us better,” says Slack.
One of the key elements of Stroll’s vision for the team has been to expand the fan base. Slack believes that in order to achieve this growth, they want to focus on the fans. “Because we had a very small fan base, we had to paint harder, which I think is a smart thing to do,” he says.
Social media has been one of Aston Martin’s most powerful points of expansion. When Slack came along, no one was making videos for the team. The team now has two videographers at each race, generating content to appeal to enthusiasts of all ages.
“Social media has given us the strength to speak directly to people, especially younger people. . . we had a strategy and a vision,” Slack says. “You’re combining those things without leaving a legacy of things done safely, in an area that’s becoming so quickly. It’s something we’re proud of, being able to care deeply about our enthusiasts and make them feel like we care about them too.
Slack says they’re still going through a learning process. Last year they created a car forged during the winter, but they didn’t expand it as well during the season. They are still perfecting some processes that their competition has been running for more than 20 years. . Subject to a number of restrictions, such as the contracts of future employees, adjustments are made periodically over several seasons.
However, the ongoing strategic advancements for Aston Martin, both on and off the track, shed light on the team’s future. At the time of changes to engine regulations requiring sustainable fuel in 2026, Aston Martin will work with the Honda engine that Red Bull uses. today and with a highly efficient performance-related fuel developed through the team’s main sponsor. Construction of the new campus is complete and its wind tunnels will arrive this year.
By combining this established infrastructure and a developing fan base with some of the drivers on the grid such as Lance Stroll and Alonso, Aston Martin is well on its way to becoming a consistent race leader. The ultimate car for the ultimate secret agent will flawlessly outperform its competitors, even without its oil jets and tire levers.
Watch out for F1! Bond, James Bond, joined the race.