The F1 silly season that started with Lewis Hamilton’s Ferrari move isn’t bound only to the drivers. There has been a major shuffling of several top-level members within teams. Matt Harman leaving Alpine for Williams, Jonathan Wheatley moving from Red Bull to Audi, Andreas Seidl leaving with Mattia Binotto replacing him, and more. Amid all this, Joe Saward suggests Aston Martin to be the next big shake-up.
“There is another that says “Aston shake-up” which relates to the quiet rumors that we will soon see changes at Aston Martin because things are not going as well as Lawrence Stroll wants them to”, wrote Saward in his Blog – Green Notebook as he suggested on the points scribbled in his diary from the Belgian GP weekend.
fernando’s 2024 season so far, documented by his interviews… this was painful to make pic.twitter.com/mFsdE8hPuS
— luna (@stiiluna_) July 27, 2024
Saward added about talking with the Aston Martin team principal Mike Krack on advances from Audi. He wrote, “I did ask Mike Krack about approaches from Audi and he said that he had no contact at all and was rather amazed by the stories that appeared.”
Aston Martin were the closest rivals to Red Bull at the start of last year. The team fell through the cracks and struggled to finish in the points towards the end. 2024 started where they left off last year, with the only difference being the fact that the top four teams have moved further ahead of them. On the other hand, teams like Williams and RB have caught up to Aston Martin.
Lawrence Stroll’s vision is to see Aston Martin challenge for the championship. However, the Silverstone team has taken a turn for the worse after the early 2023 success. The Canadian billionaire has reportedly invested over $200 million in the new factory and wind tunnel. The team is still in a transitional phase yet Stroll wants to see improvement.
Aston aggressively poached from the top teams during the 2021 and 2022 seasons. It seems like the hiring spree is going to continue with Adrian Newey rumored to be joining the team. However, they recently made another senior hire.
Andy Cowell to replace Martin Whitmarsh as the CEO of Aston Martin
Aston Martin signed the Honda engine deal last year. Aramco became the team’s title sponsor. Now, Andy Cowell has been announced as the new CEO. The experienced Martin Whitmarsh announced his exit from the team and former Mercedes engine chief Cowell was announced as the replacement.
Along with Cowell, another high-profile signing was announced by the Silverstone outfit. Ferrari chassis technical director Enrico Cardile will also be joining Aston Martin in 2025 as the Chief Technical Officer. However, with all the key signings made in the senior positions, it is difficult to see where Newey will slot in.
Newey is known to have problems with power struggles at Red Bull. Coming to Aston Martin with these many influential and senior personnel with authority might be an issue. Regardless, that’s a discussion reserved for when Newey confirms the Aston Martin arrival.
