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Whitmarsh stated that he “didn’t want to race against McLaren”
Martin Whitmarsh did not want to work for another Formula One team because he did not want to race against McLaren.
The former McLaren team principal and CEO has returned to the Formula One grid as the Group CEO of the newly formed Aston Martin Performance Technologies division.
It’s his first role in the sport since he left his former employer before the start of the 2014 campaign, with his positions being taken by Ron Dennis and Eric Boullier.
Prior to joining Aston Martin, he revealed that he had turned down the opportunity to return to the grid with another team because he did not want to compete with McLaren.
“I’m quite a strange, loyal person and just didn’t want to race against McLaren,” he said.
“Never say never. I’m still relatively young and fit [he’s 63]. This year I have freed myself up, so I don’t hold any executive positions. So there is a bit of hankering for one last hurrah.
“But I’m open to anything if it’s challenging and different. To come back and turn the same handles… it would have to be something extraordinary. But maybe I had the best of it.
“I’ve been a team principal and a chairman of FOTA [the now-disbanded Formula One Teams Association] so it would have to be something pretty special.
He also stated that if he were to join another team, it was critical that the owner be more than just rich.
“You can’t do it part-time, it’s a 24-7 thing, with good people in the team. But you can’t always choose the owners, who have to be extraordinary, and quite a lot of them aren’t. Well, they are extraordinarily rich…” he added.
Lawrence Stroll, the team’s owner, definitely falls into the latter category, and his ambition is for the team to compete for and win World Championships within the next five years.
That was a key role in his choice to bring Whitmarsh on board, as the 63-year-old was a big part of McLaren’s last title success in 2008, thanks to Lewis Hamilton.
In 2007, he was eager to give the rookie a place, which raised many eyebrows, including those of the team’s other new driver at the time, Fernando Alonso.
“We signed Fernando first before we gave Lewis the other seat,” Whitmarsh recalled.
“I remember we were telling Lewis and saying ‘your dad knows, but what about your mum?’ She was working in a factory. So I rang the factory, asked for a supervisor, then asked for Brenda and got her off the line. I handed the phone over to Lewis and he said ‘mum, I’m an F1 driver now’. It was a lovely moment.
“Then when we told Fernando he said ‘we’re meant to be fighting for the championship. How can we fight when we have a rookie in the other seat? You can’t be serious. We need someone to push me’.”
“We all know how that one turned out.”
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