“The salaries were not going to be paid”: Former Aston Martin boss on personally paying “millions” to the staff prior to £90M takeover of the team

Former Aston Martin team principal Otmar Szafnauer revealed that he paid the salaries of the employees 'twice" before Lawrence Stroll's takeover in mid-2018. The Silverstone-based outfit has gone through several changes, post its Jordan days. They became Spyker and later transformed into Force India after Indian businessman Vijay Mallya owned them.

However, despite their reputation of 'punching above their weight', in terms of their results on track given their budget, the outfit went into administration during the 2018 season.

While appearing on the High-Performance podcast, Otmar Szafnauer provided insights into the period of hard times in the team and his personally paying 'millions' to the unpaid staff. He said:

"It was in the millions. And I knew the salaries were not going to get paid. And I know how difficult that is for people. You know, some people live from paycheque to paycheque and I understand it. And I just couldn’t, we had to pay the salaries."

When asked about why he didn't publicly reveal that fact and take credit, the American replied:

"No, no it’s not what it’s about."

Billionaire Lawrence Stroll later took ownership of the team for a whopping £90M during the middle of the 2018 season. Since then, the Canadian has made huge investments in the team and rebranded it into Aston Martin, from 2021.

Adrian Newey chimes in on Aston Martin team boss's leadership style

Aston Martin Managing Technical Partner Adrian Newey stated that one of the reasons for him joining the British team for the 2025 season was team owner Lawrence Stroll's leadership style.

In his first official press conference, after choosing the team as his next destination, the aero wizard said, via F1.com:

“The reality is, if you go back 20 years, what we now call Team Principals were actually the owners of the teams, Frank Williams, Ron Dennis, Eddie Jordan etcetera. In this modern era, Lawrence is actually unique in being the only properly active team owner."

“It’s a different feeling when you have somebody like Lawrence involved like that, it’s back to the old-school model. And to have the chance to be a shareholder and a partner is something that has never really been, or hasn’t been offered to me before. It’s [an opportunity] I’m very much looking forward to. It became a very natural choice,” Newey said.

Stroll has also brought on Honda as their engine supplier for the new regulations in 2026 after the Japanese brand opted out of the sport post-2021.

Honda will be developing the power units exclusively for Aston Martin from 2026 as the British brand closes the chapter with Mercedes as their long-standing partner at the pinnacle of motorsport for more than a decade.