Just a few months ago, back in January, Aston Martin Racing team boss Otmar Szafnauer walk leave the group about creative differences with Canadians Aston financier Lawrence Stroll. At that time, the head of the brand The road auto division will also be ousted, but Stroll says reports claiming he is looking for Tobias Moers replacements are “obvious”. It’s not true.” As it may be, it was confirmed on Tuesday that Moers will be leaving the brand with immediate effect.
Knowing the departure of the CEO again comes after the creative difference with Stroll. Maybe part of those creatorsive’s differences are related to the company’s failure to reach profitability in 2021 and further delays in getting cars to customers.. Amid supply chain difficulties and international wars, the company’s flagship Valkyrie has seen some major delays and cost the company millions of dollars. Only 10 Valkyrie models will be delivered to customers in 2021, half of what the company expected.
Moers only took over as CEO in May 2020, replacing the longtime Andy Palmer. He has a big shoe to fill, as Palmer is the architect of the modern Aston Martin, having grown the brand from a former Ford player who also runs to a real player in the segment. . Moers reworked many of Palmer’s later projects, including the in-house V6 engine and all-electric Lagonda luxury sedans. These ideas were exciting and could have developed a lot of technology for Aston, but ended up being deemed too expensive to continue.
Moers appears to be in talks to develop a German technology facility for Aston Martin, move R&D out of the Gaydon facility and strengthen ties with Mercedes-Benz corporate stakeholders. According to a report from Car Magazine, Stroll was more interested in setting up R&D in Italy to give the Brit brand a little more flair. There are also rumors that the replacement CEO will be former Ferrari executive Amedo Felisa, but we will have to wait and see that..
Rumor has it that Audi is interested in buying Aston Martin immediately for production support in 2026 Formula One bids and Geely are also interested in acquisitions. Who knows if that will happen, but maybe Stroll is more interested in moving away from Mercedes to keep those prospects alive.
