Exclusive: Canadian billionaire Lawrence Stroll to buy Sauber

Motorsport.com has learned at Monza that Canadian billionaire Lawrence Stroll is looking to purchase the Sauber F1 Team.

Who is Lawrence Stroll?

Stroll owns the Circuit Mont-Tremblant in Canada, a Ferrari dealership in Québec, and an impressive collection of cars that include two of the most expensive in the world (Ferrari P4 and a Ferrari 275 GTB/4).

The fashion industry tycoon is also in the process of selling off his shares in Michael Kors, through his private equity firm Sportswear Holdings. He held a 5.7% stake in the company and with this decision, he will be left with plenty of money leftover to buy into a Formula One team.

On Forbes, the 55-year-old is ranked as the 816th richest man in the world, worth $2.3 billion dollars. Bernie Ecclestone was in talks with Stroll to buy into CVC Capital, which is the private equity firm that owns Formula One. That deal did not go through. However, it seems as though this deal with Sauber is as good as done.

The 'Russian rescue deal'

It's been known for some time now that the team is financially unstable. Last year, what has become known as the 'Russian rescue deal' saw a trio of Russian companies form a partnership with the team. This new alliance quickly disintegrated as the Ukranian crisis escalated though, and all discussions which included putting Sergey Sirotkin in an F1 car came to a screeching halt.

Sauber has struggled in 2014 thus far, failing to score any points between drivers Adrian Sutil and Esteban Gutierrez.