Former McLaren boss Whitmarsh to join Aston Martin

Former McLaren team principal Martin Whitmarsh is set to join Aston Martin in the new role of CEO of Aston Martin Performance Technologies from Oct. 1.

Whitmarsh’s new position will oversee the strategic director of the Aston Martin Formula One team as well as setting up a new arm of the company that will use its experience in F1 to provide engineering and manufacturing services.

Whitmarsh, 63, worked at McLaren for 25 years between 1989 and 2014, including a period as McLaren’s Group CEO and team principal from 2008 to 2014.

He worked closely with Lewis Hamilton during his first championship-winning season in 2008 and helped launch McLaren Applied Technologies, which Aston Martin Performance Technologies will rival.

Aston Martin’s executive chairman, Lawrence Stroll, believes Whitmarsh can help his team win the F1 world championship.

« Martin will enjoy senior leadership responsibility and will assist and support me in setting the new strategic direction for Aston Martin Performance Technologies and its subsidiaries, including the crucial objective of leading the transformation of Aston Martin Cognizant Formula One Team into a Formula One World Championship-winning organisation within the next four to five years, and evolving it into a £1 billion business over a similar time period, » Stroll said.

« Martin has enjoyed a long, successful and high-profile career, spanning the motorsport, automotive, aerospace, marine and renewable-energy sectors. Moreover, he is a proven winner in Formula One. He is therefore the ideal person for the job of working with me and our senior management team to lead and inspire our workforce to future success both on and off track. »

Whitmarsh added: « I am delighted to have been appointed by Lawrence to the position of Group Chief Executive Officer of the new Aston Martin Performance Technologies, from October 1st 2021.

« I have known and admired Lawrence for many years, and I have always been extremely impressed by his formidable business acumen and his seemingly inexhaustible ambition. Equally, I have always respected ‘Team Silverstone’, if I can call it that, which has often punched above its weight under its various previous incarnations, and which now has the weight with which to punch harder than ever before.

« Lawrence intends Aston Martin Cognizant Formula One Team to win Formula One World Championships, plain and simple, and I would not have joined him in that endeavour unless I was utterly convinced that it was an entirely achievable aim. I know what it takes to win in Formula One, and, inspired by Lawrence’s leadership and backed by the skill, passion and resolve of the workforce, I intend to do whatever I can to make sure that our team becomes the winning operation that Lawrence is determined that it should be.

« Last but far from least, I am very enthused about the formation of the new Aston Martin Performance Technologies, under which corporate umbrella Aston Martin Cognizant Formula One Team will sit, and I am excited about the prospect of developing and applying our technical capabilities and intellectual property as a successful and profitable new business. »