Sacked Aston Martin team boss Otmar Szafneuer questions Lawrence Stroll’s decision-making for having ‘a child in the car’

Lawrence Stroll acquired the Force India F1 team in 2018 before renaming it to Aston Martin in 2021.

Sacked Aston Martin team boss Otmar Szafneuer questions Lawrence Stroll’s decision-making for having ‘a child in the car’

Lawrence Stroll and Lance Stroll (Via IMAGO)

The Aston Martin F1 team is currently bankrolled by Canadian billionaire Lawrence Stroll. Stroll took over the Force India team mid-way through 2018 as it went into administration. Since then, the Silverstone-based team has seen massive changes including the exit of team boss Otmar Szafnauer. However, Aston Martin has failed to replicate the ‘bang for buck’ results it achieved in its previous guise. Now, Szafnauer has slammed Lawrence Stroll while making a comparison to Force India owner Vijay Mallya.

Vijay Mallya is an Indian business tycoon who fell into legal troubles a few years ago and shifted to the UK. Mallya’s legal battles led to the sale of the Force India F1 team which was acquired by Lawrence Stroll. The new owner brought in his son Lance Stroll from Williams to race for the Silverstone-based squad. While Szafnauer switched from Aston Martin to Alpine as Team Principal in 2022.

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Otmar Szafnauer highlighted the difference in the approach of Stroll and Mallya. The Romanian-American claimed that Vijay Mallya had a more hands-off style of owning the team. On the other hand, Lawrence Stroll is more involved in the team’s activities. Szafnauer claimed that this was partly due to Stroll’s son being in the driver line-up.

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The significant differences are, Vijay was hands-off – Vijay didn’t have a son in the car either.
Otmar Szafnauer said on the Inside Line F1 podcast (H&T Racefans.net)

The former Aston Martin boss claimed that Vijay Mallya was more objective as a team owner compared to Lawrence Stroll who could be making decisions based on emotions due to his son’s place at the team.

So because of it, there’s less emotion and more objective decision-making.

Otmar Szafnauer claims Aston Martin performed better during its Force India days

Lawrence Stroll has invested massively into the Silverstone-based team. The Canadian billionaire signed Sebastian Vettel and then Fernando Alonso to provide Aston Martin with valuable feedback. However, the British team had an underwhelming two seasons in 2021 and 2022. The 2023 season saw a rise in the team’s performance at the start of the year. Although, Stroll’s squad fell behind its rivals by the latter half of the season.

Fernando Alonso driving the Aston Martin AMR23 at the Japanese GP (image via Motorsportweek)
Fernando Alonso driving the Aston Martin AMR23 at the Japanese GP (image via Motorsportweek)

Otmar Szafnauer highlighted that Lawrence Stroll has spent a lot more than Vijay Mallya since purchasing the squad. However, Aston Martin’s performance arguably does not match the level the team had reached in the final days of its Force India guise. Force India had finished fourth in the Constructors’ championship in 2016 and 2017 despite having one of the smallest budgets on the grid.

Lawrence actually spent a lot more money in being able to get that performance. It’s not that Vijay didn’t [spend], but Lawrence spent an order of magnitude more. Ironically, the performance at the end of Force India was better than they’re performing today.

Certainly, Aston Martin has a long way to go before it could fulfill Stroll’s F1 ambitions. Team Silverstone will partner with Honda for an exclusive power units deal from 2026. This would provide the British squad with the perfect platform to potentially fight for the championship. However, it remains to be seen if Lawrence Stroll’s team could emerge victorious at the pinnacle of motorsport.

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