Fuel the Passion Weekly Report: All Things Aston Martin
Week Ending 7th December 2025
Dan, Fuel the Passion, Editor’s Introduction
I hope your Christmas preparations are going according to plan, mine currently involve equal measures of car trouble, festive anticipation, and far too many mince pies. But what a week it’s been across the Aston Martin world. Corporate shifts, F1 intrigue, young driver milestones, IMSA announcements, WEC reflections, and a story involving a 50-year family dream restored into a DB5 masterpiece, more on that particular DB5 story in a featured article, which you can read here.
And, of course, today is a big moment for Fuel the Passion itself, with a triple release landing at 12:00, this being one of those releases.
So grab a coffee, settle in, and let’s explore everything that mattered this week.
Top Aston Martin News (Corporate & Brand)
It’s been a surprisingly lively corporate week for Aston Martin. Rumours circulated, loudly, about a potential Saudi-led push to privatise Aston Martin Lagonda, following suggestions the company might delist from the London Stock Exchange. While AML officially declined to comment, the story gained traction because it taps into a deeper truth: the company’s value has dropped dramatically from nearly £5bn in 2018 to around £900m today. For a historic marque, that’s a sobering slide.
Whether a delisting happens or not, it raised an important debate:
Why might a luxury carmaker prefer life away from the trading screens? The answer is simple, freedom. Delisting would reduce public scrutiny, allow for longer-term planning, and remove the quarterly pressure that makes bold automotive strategy nearly impossible. But crucially, shareholders can’t simply be forced to sell; a buyout requires a majority acceptance and regulatory approval. For now, it’s only noise, but it’s noise the financial world is listening to.
Further complicating the corporate picture is the confirmed news that AML has now entirely sold its stake in Aston Martin’s F1 team. This means the racing outfit is, in effect, privately held by Lawrence Stroll’s consortium. In FTP terms: the brand and the team continue to share a name, a colour, and a heritage story, but financially, they’re now on very different journeys. We’ll keep a close eye on how that evolves.
On a lighter note, Aston Martin’s partnership with Timex Group officially launched its first watch and jewellery collection.
It’s a great move for the brand into further personal luxury items, with designs echoing stitching patterns, carbon fibre textures and wheel-inspired detailing. A small story in the grand scheme of things, but a welcome one, because it shows Aston Martin hasn’t stopped celebrating beauty, even amid corporate turbulence.
And over in the world of high-end lifestyle awards, the DBX S grabbed a major accolade:
Top Gear’s Super SUV of the Year.
Tom Ford summed it up best: “insanely fast and perfectly practical… and 50% less money than a Ferrari Purosangue.” Not bad at all.
FTP Images: Aston Martin DBX S - Aston Martin, Leeds
Top Gear’s Super SUV of the Year.
AMOC & Community Corner
A quieter week for AMOC, but still a meaningful one. The DB5 restoration story, the one flooding the press has captured hearts everywhere, particularly because it’s steeped in family history. Aston Martin Works spent 50 years nurturing a dream that began with a father, then inherited by his sons, and finally restored into one of the most elegant DB5s ever completed. See just one of the YouTube Videos on this story below;
This weeks featured article
The DB5 isn’t just a beautifully restored classic, it’s a case study in why certain machines become legends.
In this week’s Featured Article, I look at how cinema, heritage and pure emotion have pushed the DB5’s value to near-mythical status, and what that tells us about Aston Martin’s future. If the restoration story caught your eye, the full deep-dive is waiting. CLICK HERE and we’ll take you straight there.
If you haven’t seen them yet, don’t forget these two video’s, the first one from us, here at Fuel the Passion, celebrating Aston Martin Owners Club 90th Anniversary Celebrations in Austria and the Clubs 90th Anniversary Official Commemorative Film. Just click on the images below to view.
Motorsport Roundup
Formula One — Aston Martin Aramco
A dramatic, layered week for the F1 team.
First, the on-track reality: qualifying in Qatar was tough. Fernando Alonso once again outperformed Lance Stroll, a trend now so established it’s becoming a statistical landmark. Stroll’s Q1 exit marked his 15th early elimination of the season, while Alonso reached Q3 for the 12th time.
Results matter, and the contrast is becoming impossible to ignore. Right now, Stroll is the weak link in the driver pairing. The numbers speak for themselves. Alonso has out-qualified Stroll 34–0 stretching back to mid-2024.
Off track, the drama didn’t quieten down. The team received a double €25,000 fine after Alonso and Stroll missed a mandatory fan engagement session on Friday. Aston Martin explained that both rookies Jak Crawford and Cian Shields, had been driving in FP1, and therefore the race drivers weren’t expected to attend. The stewards disagreed. To repair the situation, the team will provide signed caps, extra fan engagement and garage access for selected supporters. A PR bruise, but one that can heal quickly with the right tone, and Aston Martin handled it professionally afterward.
Yet the biggest storyline remains the Adrian Newey era that is rapidly coming into view. Newey clarified his 2026 duties this week, confirming he will take over team management in addition to leading the design direction for the new generation of Aston Martin F1 cars. Crucially, Lawrence Stroll also addressed rumours that Christian Horner might join the team: he stated categorically that Horner will not be employed by Aston Martin. The path is clear, Newey is the centrepiece, the architect, and the vision-setter.
Even Alonso weighed in, praising Newey’s arrival as the catalyst needed for Aston Martin to make a genuine step forward under the 2026 regulations.
Young Driver Programme
Two key milestones:
Jak Crawford drove Stroll’s AMR25 in Abu Dhabi FP1 and take part in the Young Driver Test.
Cian Shields drove Alonso’s AMR25 in the same FP1 session, making his Formula One debut.
Both drivers have logged significant simulator and TPC mileage, and their involvement signals that Aston Martin is quietly, but deliberately thinking about the future.
IMSA — Aston Martin THOR
A fantastic announcement for 2026:
Aston Martin confirmed its full driver lineup for both the Valkyrie GTP and Vantage GTD programmes.
Ross Gunn, Roman De Angelis, Alex Riberas and Marco Sørensen will lead the Valkyrie’s second GTP season, while Eduardo Barrichello (son of Rubens) joins the Vantage GT3 squad. The programme is expanding, maturing, and aligning tightly with Aston Martin’s global endurance push.
WEC 2025 — Season Reflection
This week, the FIA confirmed the final Manufacturers' standings, with Aston Martin finishing 8th in Hypercar. On paper, modest, but results alone don’t tell the story.
What matters most is trajectory.
The Valkyrie entered WEC as one of the most celebrated and scrutinised Hypercars ever built. By mid-season, the team delivered a fantastic P5 at Fuji, followed by back-to-back points finishes to close the year. Reliability stabilised. Strategy improved. And the V12 symphony that the Valkyrie unleashes every time it leaves the pits? It made the car an instant fan favourite worldwide.
If 2025 was about learning, 2026 will be about competing.
WEC 2025 — By The Numbers
A quick-scan box for the Aston Overview;
Final Position: 8th in Hypercar
Best Result: 5th (Fuji)
Points Finishes: Two consecutive races
Fan Impact: One of the most-recorded and most-watched cars trackside
Unique Achievement: The only Hypercar to compete in both WEC and IMSA GTP in the same year
To see Aston Martin’s latest ‘Road to Race’ episode, the final in the series, covering the progress of the Aston Martin Valkyrie Hypercar in the WEC Championship, just click on the link below. This film just illustrates the excellent, and exciting progress the team have made with this car!
The foundation is now laid. 2026 could be something special.
Aston Martin Lagonda Share Price — This Week
AML’s share price saw a steady upward trend, closing the week at 65.45p, up from its recent lows. Technical indicators suggest stabilisation: RSI has risen above 60, momentum is strengthening, and volatility remains moderate.
More broadly, the stock is still down 38% year-on-year, emphasising the importance of the strategic decisions hinted at in this week’s delisting rumours.
An FTP Vantage Update
A personal one from me this week.
The FTP Vantage has been battling persistent headlight condensation, which has now escalated to the main beam failing completely. After a week of calls, quotes and pondering whether my bank balance could take the hit, the car is now officially booked into Aston Martin Leeds for a replacement before Christmas.
It’s a painful job, requiring a full bumper removal, and it’s not cheap… but the Vantage deserves to be fighting fit. And it needs to be, because there’s a truly special event coming up soon. More on that when the time is right.
Meanwhile at Fuel the Passion… Today is a Big One
At 12:00 GMT today, FTP drops three major pieces:
1️⃣ New YouTube Video (Click on the picture below to view)
Part Two of the Silverstone Parade Lap journey: from the AMOC paddock straight into the Silverstone Museum.
2️⃣ New Featured Article
The Emotional Economics of the DB5 — exploring why this car refuses to fade, and why its value isn’t just monetary.
3️⃣ This Week’s FTP Weekly Report
The piece you’re reading now.
It’s a celebration of everything that keeps this marque alive, the stories, the community, and the passion we share.
Join the Conversation
I’d love to hear your thoughts on this week’s stories. The whole point of Fuel the Passion is that it isn’t just my voice, it’s ours. So if anything in this week’s report caught your attention, made you smile, made you think, or raised a question… drop a comment in the box below.
Here are a few conversation starters if you fancy jumping in:
What do you make of the Adrian Newey era taking shape at Aston Martin?
Should the team rethink its driver line-up heading into 2026?
Do you think delisting could help AML steady the ship and refocus long-term?
Which WEC Valkyrie moment made the hairs on your neck stand up this season?
And if you’ve watched today’s new FTP video, what was your standout moment?
Whether it’s a full paragraph or just a quick thought, everyone’s voice adds to the story we’re building here.
Looking forward to chatting with you below.
