Mar.20 (GMM) Bernie Ecclestone has forged doubt on reviews that Aston Martin is about to put in Jonathan Wheatley as workforce principal amid its ongoing Honda-era catastrophe.
“That’s virtually unimaginable,” the previous F1 supremo informed Blick of the reported transfer.
“It could solely make sense if he didn’t prefer it in Switzerland and wished to return to England.”
A number of authoritative reviews counsel Aston Martin is certainly exploring a management reshuffle that will see Adrian Newey step again from the workforce principal function to deal with technical duties, with new Audi workforce boss Wheatley recognized as the popular alternative.
The transfer would reunite Wheatley with Newey, combining the latter’s technical brilliance with a extra conventional administration determine – an space the place the 67-year-old Briton is much less skilled.
Nevertheless, the state of affairs is sophisticated by the very fact Wheatley solely not too long ago joined Audi and is known to be on a robust long-term contract, with negotiations now reportedly centred on potential exit phrases and a possible prolonged interval of gardening go away.
Audi is alleged to be sad with the state of affairs, though it stopped wanting issuing a denial.
“We’ve got taken notice of the latest media reviews,” a spokesperson mentioned.
“Presently, we’ve no official replace on the matter. We don’t touch upon hypothesis.”
Aston Martin, in the meantime, has additionally issued a cautious response, publicly backing Newey whereas declining to have interaction with the reviews.
“We’re conscious of the media hypothesis. There aren’t any official updates from us at the moment, and we don’t touch upon rumours,” the workforce mentioned.
“We totally help Adrian Newey as Managing Technical Companion and Crew Principal.”
Aston Martin added that Newey “continues to guide the workforce, combining his obligations” in each roles.
