F1: Aston Martin are ‘going NOWHERE’ under Lawrence Stroll’s leadership, claims ex-F1 team boss

Aston Martin’s struggles in Formula One under Lawrence Stroll are proof that ‘the fish stinks from the head,’ according to a former team boss.

In an extraordinary attack on Stroll’s leadership of the team, Colin Kolles, a former team principal in the sport with HRT Racing, has laid the blame solely at the door of Canadian billionaire Stroll.

A dismal performance at the Saudi Arabia Grand Prix, in which stand-in driver Nico Hulkenberg finished 12th and Lance Stroll, son of team owner Lance, finished down in 13th, has seen Aston Martin go four straight races without getting a single point, a disaster that lands at the boss’s door in the eyes of Kolles.  

‘You have a team owner who thinks he is the team boss, who knows everything better and thinks he should put his son up front with all his might. For me, that is the completely wrong approach,’ Kolles told German broadcaster Sport1.

‘The fish always stinks from the head. I can see the racing team going nowhere.

‘As long as Mr Whitmarsh is in charge and Mr Stroll doesn’t see that he should be staying at home and only giving budgetary guidelines and letting people work who know their stuff and get the right people to lead the team, it will never work in life.’

Stroll purchased Force India in 2018 for £90million and held grand ambitions to go on and challenge the F1 elite in the coming years. 

They rebranded as Racing Point before changing to their current guise as Aston Martin. 

Stroll’s son Lance was immediately elevated into a seat and Kolles believes the Canadian team owner’s approach is one of burning money in a desperate bid for success. 

‘If someone thinks they’ll get into Formula 1 and be in the front ranks overnight, then it won’t work that quickly,’ he continued. 

‘You have to have a plan. You could have had the plan that new rules would come in 2022 and work on them. However, Mr Stroll decided a few years ago that it should now be done quickly, no matter what the cost. 

‘I used to tell (investors) if you take a million of any currency and throw it on a fire, the money will burn up just as quickly as in Formula 1 if you don’t know what you’re doing, and that is the case that is happening at Aston Martin.’

Team principal Otmar Szafnauer left the team to join Alpine last season and his comments pointed at the difficulties of working for Stroll.

While he didn’t name the Canadian businessman directly, he said: ‘Two Popes is not possible. But that was exactly the situation at Aston Martin.’

After two races of the season so far Aston Martin are joint bottom of the constructors’ championship standings with 0 points. 

Only Williams can match the scoreless total heading into next week’s Australian Grand Prix.