Szafnauer: 'Role as Aston-Martin team boss won't change with Whitmarsh'

A few days ago, Aston Martin announced that former McLaren boss Martin Whitmarsh will join the team as Group CEO of Aston Martin Performance Technologies. With this, the team is bringing in another Formula 1 leader.

Team boss Otmar Szafnauer stresses that his role will not change despite the arrival of the former McLaren boss. According to Szafnauer, Whitmarsh will bring valuable knowledge about the use of technology outside the sport. He gained this experience while working at McLaren and BAR.

Indeed, Aston Martin also wants to launch a number of projects that are not necessarily racing-related and has designed a new base at Silverstone for this purpose. "He was there at McLaren when they started doing that, so he’s got that experience, and he can lead us to shortcuts in doing that", Szafnauer told Autosport.com.

He continued: "He’s also had seven years now of boat racing experience, including starting a new company that is taking technologies from boat racing and moving that technology into I think cargo ships."

“And it’s an applied technology type business, technology transfer. He’s got good experience in that, and he’ll help us shortcut the development of our performance technology business", Szafnauer said.