Woody Johnson is expanding his sports empire to the racetrack. The 79-year-old owner of the New York Jets has purchased a stake in the Aston Martin Formula 1 team and will join its board of directors as vice chairman immediately, the organization announced on Thursday.
Financial terms of the transaction were not disclosed. A representative for the team did not reply to a request for comment.
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Aston Martin was the fifth-most valuable Formula 1 team at $3 billion, according to Sportico’s most recent valuations from last November. Canadian fashion and retail billionaire Lawrence Stroll, who Forbes estimates is worth $3.7 billion, bought the organization for $135 million in 2018, when it was still the Force India team, and installed his son Lance as a driver ahead of the following season.
After a brief stint under the moniker of Racing Point, Stroll rebranded the team as Aston Martin for the 2021 campaign. That came as part of a deal the previous year in which he had led a $235.6 million (£182 million) investment into the car company. Stroll also assumed the role of executive chairman of the publicly traded automaker.
Johnson is a descendant of Robert Wood Johnson, who co-founded pharmaceutical, biotech and health products company Johnson & Johnson with his two brothers in 1886. He bought the Jets for $635 million in 2000, and the franchise is now worth $10.35 billion, per Sportico data. Forbesvalues the fortune of Johnson and his immediately family at $4.3 billion.
This isn’t the first time Johnson has taken his sports interests across the pond. He bought a 43% stake in Premier League club Crystal Palace from American businessman John Textor last year in a $254 million (£190 million) deal. Off the soccer pitch, he served as President Donald Trump’s ambassador to the U.K. from 2017 to 2021.
Meanwhile, as F1 valuations continue to rise—the average team was worth $3.42 billion in 2025, up 48% from a year prior—Aston Martin has been one to take advantage. Stroll has sold multiple stakes to fund improvements in his Formula 1 team, with Arctos Partners and HPS Investment Partners among those joining the cap table. The broader Aston Martin company unloaded a sliver of the team at a $3 billion-plus valuation about a year ago as well.
The Aston Martin Formula 1 team has had an inauspicious run so far in 2026. Plagued by issues with its cars, Lance Stroll and the team’s other driver, two-time drivers’ champion Fernando Alonso, have managed to collect one point combined, putting Aston Martin in 10th place. Adrian Newey, the high-priced engineer Stroll lured over from Red Bull in 2025, also stepped back from his team leadership role in March to concentrate on technical matters, according to ESPN.
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