ASTON MARTIN PUTS COWELL IN CHARGE

Andy Cowell has been put fully in charge of Aston Martin’s Formula 1 team, accumulating the roles of Chief Operating Officer and Team Principal, in yet another reshuffle decided by team owner Lawrence Stroll.

The former Mercedes man becomes the third Team Principal since the Canadian acquired the team just over six years ago, following on the footsteps of Otmar Szafnauer and Mike Krack.

The announcement was made in the second week of the year, with the team statement explaining that, “to deliver the best race car performance, the team’s Aerodynamics, Engineering and Performance Departments have evolved to become separate, dedicated trackside and AMR Technology Campus-based teams with both reporting into Andy.”

Unlike Szafnauer, though, Mike Krack has been retained by Aston Martin but his new role limits him to being in charge of track operations, the Luxembourgian being given the title of Chief Trackside Officer. In a way this is a return to his original background, as Krack was a race engineer for Sauber and BMW Sauber until close to the end of 2008, working with Felipe Massa, Robert Kubica and then test driver Sebastian Vettel.

But this demotion from Krack has also led to the departure of the highly respected Tom McCullogh from his position as Performance Director, a role he’d been filling for almost a decade now.

Given his contract is far from coming to an end, Aston Martin has opted against sacking McCullogh but has moved him away from the Formula 1 team, as he’ll be now working on expanding the company’s brand into other categories of motor racing. 

And with Cowell now filling a dual role, Enrico Cardille has moved up from his position as Technical Director to Chief Technical Officer, effectively running the technical department of the team until Adrian Newey is allowed to start working at Silverstone, close to the start of the summer.

Speaking about his promotion, Cowell commented that, “I have spent the last three months understanding and assessing our performance, and I’ve been incredibly impressed by the dedication, commitment and hard work of this team.

“With the completion of the AMR Technology Campus and our transition in 2026 to a full works team, alongside our strategic partners Honda and Aramco, we are on a journey to becoming a Championship-winning team.

“These organisational changes are a natural evolution of the multi-year plans that we have scheduled to make and I’m incredibly excited about the future.”

Photo by Zak Mauger / LAT Images

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