Szafnauer: Aston Martin exit obvious when responsibilities taken away

Alpine team boss Otmar Szafnauer says the writing was on the wall regarding his future at Aston Martin F1 once his main responsibilities were taken away.

Szafnauer switched his allegiance from Aston to Alpine F1 earlier this year after a long-standing tenure with the former during which he guided the outfit through thick and thin in its Force India and Racing point guises.

But Lawrence Stroll's hiring of former McLaren top man Martin Whitmarsh as Group Chief Executive Officer of Aston Martin Performance Technologies and other hirings in the works implied that Szafnauer would perhaps be moved down in the team's organizational chart.

A meeting of Aston's top brass in Abu Dhabi at the end of last season confirmed that the American's responsibilities were to be reined in in the future.

"They made it very clear to me that the responsibilities that I used to have before, were never given back," Szafnauer said.

"And once I learned that, then it was really time to move. It was at the last race. I was told: you used to be able to run the team but you're not running it anymore."

The prospect of remaining involved with Aston Martin in a secondary management role was in stark contrast to Alpine's offer, with CEO Laurent Rossi eager to tap into Szafnauer's vast experience and expertise to guide the Enstone squad forward.

And that was an appealing outlook for the American.

"All my discussions with the seniors here, they said: ‘look, the reason we want you to come is because of all your experience in F1. And we want you to apply that to Alpine and help us in our aim to win races.'

"When the fellows that are hiring you say that, then you feel very confident that that's what they're hiring you for. They want your experience. So that's why I went with the experience."

• Read also - Rossi: 'Overachiever' Szafnauer knows what it takes to build a team

Szafnauer insisted that had his status at Aston Martin remained unchanged, he would have stayed with Team Silverstone.

"I had a contract. So I had no reason [to leave] had the responsibilities not been taken away from me, I would have stayed."

The 57-year-old F1 veteran says he's still settling in at Alpine and has yet to dig in and complete his comprehensive assessment of his new team's situation.

But what he has seen so far is an outfit with an indisputable potential.

"I haven't done anything yet," he said. "I've said this in the past, and I applied it, and I'll say it again, a team like this has some great capabilities and great people and smart people.

"What I need to do is have a good assessment of everything because, if you just start making change for the sake of change, you could get it wrong.

"You shouldn't make change for the sake of change. You need to have a really, really good assessment, and then say: okay, with all my experience, these areas I've seen at other teams are better, and they bring performance.

"So let's try to bolster these areas. Then, these other areas are great. There are areas that I have seen already where we have to take steps forward, but I'm still in the assessment mode."

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