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Mercedes F1 boss Toto Wolff takes a stake in Aston Martin

LONDON — Mercedes Formula One boss Toto Wolff has taken a stake in British sportscar maker Aston Martin, whose executive chairman Lawrence Stroll runs the Racing Point F1 team, according to company filings. A Mercedes F1 spokesman said Wolff's move was purely an investment on the Austrian's part and would be diluted by a rights issue on Monday from 4.77% to less than 1%. "Fully diluted following the pending rights issue, this investment will represent a 0.95% stake in the company," he added. "It is a financial investment and Toto's partnership and executive role with Mercedes are unaffected by the transaction." Swiss billionaire Ernesto Bertarelli has also bought a 3.38% stake which will be similarly diluted. Wolff previously had a 16% shareholding in former champions Williams but sold that after he joined the Mercedes team, where he serves as principal and owns 30%. Canadian billionaire Stroll, whose son Lance drives for Racing Point alongside Mexican Sergio Perez, is close to Wolff. The Silverstone-based team — to be renamed Aston Martin next year — use Mercedes engines and gearboxes. Mercedes-Benz's parent Daimler also has a small stake in Aston Martin. "It's clear that Aston are now Mercedes' B team," the Daily Mail quoted one Formula One insider as saying. Wolff's future at Mercedes has been the subject of some media speculation, with the 48-year-old linked variously to senior management roles with Liberty Media-owned Formula One and at Aston Martin. His Aston Martin shares were bought from Yew Tree Overseas Limited, a vehicle controlled by Stroll who acquired a roughly 25% percent holding in Aston Martin with a consortium of investors. Mercedes have won the past six Formula One drivers' and constructors' titles but have six times world champion Lewis Hamilton out of contract at the end of the 2020 season, which has yet to start due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Hamilton, who has also been linked to Ferrari, had told reporters before the global crisis changed the sporting and financial landscape that his decision would depend on Wolff's plans. The Briton is now expected to stay at Mercedes, with a radical overhaul of Formula One's sporting and technical regulations postponed to 2022. Related Video: Motorsports Aston Martin Mercedes-Benz

China's BAIC looks to invest in Daimler

Daimler and Beijing Automotive Group (BAIC) are already intertwined in China. Daimler is a 12-percent shareholder in BAIC Motor, the third largest shareholder in the passenger-car division of BAIC. They have a joint manufacturing venture Beijing Benz in which BAIC is the majority partner by one percent, a sales joint venture Beijing Mercedes-Benz Sales Service Co. in which Daimler is the majority partner by one percent, and Daimer says, "BAIC is our most important partner in China." Beijing Benz is ten years old this year. They'll become even closer if talks between the two concerning BAIC taking "a major stake" in the German conglomerate come to anything. Reuters reports that the two are in talks now, with BAIC Chairman Xu Heyi saying it should be resolved one way or another by the end of this year. If they agree, the China-based, Hong Kong-listed company will join Renault-Nissan and the Kuwait Investment Authority as Daimler's top shareholders. Some China analysts see a potential Daimler investment as a coup for BAIC, similar to BAIC's 2009 purchase of old Saab platform, engine, and transmission technologies, that would give it access to technologies it wouldn't have to develop on its own and hastening the development of its own cars. A deal is also seen as potentially opening up export possibilities for the Chinese company. Other analysts aren't sure that BAIC would get any useful technology, noting that that last deal between the two gave BAIC the outdated E-Class platform, but none of Mercedes' headline tech. If a deal is done, BAIC will join Dongfeng Group and SAIC as Chinese automaker investors in western automotive companies.

Leopard walks in, shuts down a Mercedes-Benz plant

In recent months the auto industry has seen plant closures due to a host of reasons — parts shortages, recalls, natural disasters, and even a once-in-a-lifetime pandemic. Now it can add to that list the threat of an invading leopard. A Mercedes-Benz factory in Pune, India, was forced to halt production for a few hours when a wayward jungle cat wandered into the facility, When the 3-year-old male leopard was spotted inside the manufacturing unit of the factory, it caused a panic among workers, according to a release by rescue organization Wildlife SOS discovered by The Drive. The site was shut down for about six hours as a Wildlife SOS rapid response team from the Manikdoh Leopard Rescue Centre and the State Forest Department safely removed the curious cat. This content is hosted by a third party. To view it, please update your privacy preferences. Manage Settings. The team's veterinary officers Dr. Nikhil Bangar and Dr. Shubham Patil carried out the rescue operation, tranquilizing the feline and loading it into a wildlife carrier. The rescue took about four hours, and Wildlife SOS reports that neither the creature nor any workers sustained injuries. The leopard was released back into the wild.  No one is quite sure how it got onto the factory grounds, but Wildlife SOS says that the forests in the surrounding region have one of the highest densities of leopards in the world. It's also suffering from rapid deforestation. That encroachment by humans has led to a decrease in the leopard's natural prey as well, so wildlife experts think it may have been looking for food.  The Mercedes plant builds the Maybach S 560, S-Class, E-Class Long Wheelbase, C-Class, CLA, GLA, GLE and GLS for the Indian market.  We have a different theory. We believe that the cat was seeking to set the record straight with Mercedes. When the S 65 AMG debuted, Mercedes claimed it featured the world's first Road Surface Scan technology to detect pavement undulations and adjust suspension damping accordingly. The only problem with that claim: Nissan had the technology some 30 years earlier in several mid-80s models, including the Maxima and Japan's version of the Infiniti M30, which was called — you guessed it — the Leopard.