Otmar Szafnauer compared the management of Aston Martin with Lawrence Stroll , who is directly involved in the decision-making process, to the way the team’s former owner, Vijay Mallya , let top managers work.
Martin Whitmarsh joined the Silverstone structure’s chain of command a few months ago as CEO of Aston Martin Performance Technologies, further diluting Szafnauer ‘s authority within the team.
The Romanian manager confirmed his departure from the Silverstone team at the start of 2021 and was quickly hired as the new Alpine F1 team principal.
“As a friend of mine told me, the Catholic church only has one pope,” Szafnauer told F1 TV.
“And when you have two Popes, things don’t work well. So I think it was time to go and leave Aston Martin with its one Pope. Now I’m going to try and help Alpine as much as I can.”
“Everyone has an owner, that’s for sure. But the owner and boss I had before didn’t want to micromanage everything, they let me work for myself.”
“Vijay [Mallya] would come to the factory four days a year and then I’d see him on the circuits. But 98% of the work isn’t done on the track, it’s done in the factory, that’s where it all really happens.
“And the results of that work show up on the track. But the real work, with all due respect to the mechanics, the race engineers and the drivers, is done at the factory.”
“Vijay came three or four days a year. So the rest was completely up to us. It’s a different way of working.”
Szafnauer assured that he will not make any changes to Alpine before checking the way they work, as his priority is to learn how the team works before deciding what can be improved.
“The first thing I think I need to do is learn how different Enstone is from the factory where I come from, learn everyone’s name, learn their personality, their DNA and just get used to it all.”
“I remember when I got to Force India , they asked me, what are you going to change? They were last when I signed for them.”
“But you can’t change things just to change, you have to learn first, because I’m sure there are a lot of good things in every factory, and why would you change things just to change? You could change what’s good. So first and foremost everything, you have to observe and learn”.
Szafnauer has worked with Esteban Ocon before when he was at Force India/Racing Point , but he will have to develop a new relationship with Fernando Alonso.
The American sees some parallels between the Spanish driver and Sebastian Vettel, with whom he worked at Aston Martin last season.
“I have great respect for Fernando. I met him when we were deciding which driver to put alongside Lance Stroll. So I spoke to him directly.
“And recently I worked with Sebastian Vettel, who is a four-time world champion. I think he has a very similar work ethic [as Alonso].
“Or should I say that Fernando has a similar work ethic to Sebastian, that need to compete at the highest level, leave no stone unturned and take full advantage of the performance. So I totally understand that.”
“Working with Fernando will be easy, because I’m the same. I want to do exactly the same as him. It’s all about how you do it, how you treat others to get the most out of it. That’s the key,” Szafnauer concluded.
