Szafnauer: "Better for all parties" that I left Aston Martin

Szafnauer had been the long-serving F1 boss for the Silverstone-based Aston Martin squad, stretching back to its early Force India days.

It emerged last year that he was on the cusp of a move to Alpine, leading to questions about his future with Aston Martin. Szafnauer said at Interlagos in November he had “no intention of leaving” and he had a long-term contract in place, having called the media reports “speculative conjecture”.

But in January, Aston Martin confirmed that Szafnauer had left his position as CEO and team principal of the F1 team. His switch to Alpine was then announced in mid-February before the start of pre-season testing.

Asked by Autosport what had changed since claiming he had no intention of leaving Aston Martin, Szafnauer explained that “time moved on”.

“At that point, there was no intention of leaving,” Szafnauer said during F1’s second pre-season test in Bahrain this week.

“But as time moved on and things changed at Aston, I thought it was better for all parties that I looked elsewhere.”

Otmar Szafnauer, Team Principal and CEO, Aston Martin F1, Anthony Bamford, chairman of JCB, and Lawrence Stroll, Owner, Aston Martin F1

Photo by: Glenn Dunbar / Motorsport Images

Szafnauer played a key role in the team’s transition from Force India to Racing Point following the former’s financial collapse in 2018 before it was rescued by Lawrence Stroll. The team was rebranded as Aston Martin for 2021 after Stroll took a stake in the British carmaker.

But the appointment of former McLaren F1 boss Martin Whitmarsh as Aston Martin’s new group CEO led to questions about Szafnauer’s position and remit, which he said would be unchanged.

Szafnauer joined Alpine as part of a wider restructure of its F1 management, which included the departure of former executive director Marcin Budkowski.

“I’m really enjoying it,” Szafnauer said. “This is my sixth day. I spent a few days at the factory, I tried to walk around and meet as many people as I can really in the first few days.

"I was pleasantly surprised to see a lot of faces that I knew there from my past, be it from Honda or British American Racing, even Force India. I know how the people are.

“[There’s] great potential, like-minded people, pulling in the same direction and wanting to do well. They’ve got a great history there. They’ve won before, good infrastructure, so I really look forward to working with them all.”