萨弗诺尔：我离开阿斯顿·马丁“对所有人更好”

Szafnauer had been the long-serving F1 boss for the Silverstone-based Aston Martin squad, stretching back to its early Force India days.

It emerged last year that he was on the cusp of a move to Alpine, leading to questions about his future with Aston Martin.

Szafnauer said at Interlagos in November he had "no intention of leaving" and he had a long-term contract in place, having called the media reports "speculative conjecture".

But in January, Aston Martin confirmed that Szafnauer had left his position as CEO and team principal of the F1 team. His switch to Alpine was then announced in mid-February before the start of pre-season testing.

Asked by Motorsport.com what had changed since claiming he had no intention of leaving Aston Martin, Szafnauer explained that "time moved on".

"At that point, there was no intention of leaving," Szafnauer said during F1's second pre-season test in Bahrain this week.

"But as time moved on and things changed at Aston, I thought it was better for all parties that I looked elsewhere."

萨弗诺尔在阿斯顿·马丁以银石为基地的团队的当家人，最早可以追溯到早年的印度力量时期。去年，有传言称他可能转投Alpine，让大家对他在阿斯顿·马丁的未来产生怀疑。去年11月，萨弗诺尔在英特拉格斯时表示“没有离开的打算”，自己手上有着一份长期合约，并称相关媒体报道是“试探性的揣测”。

不过1月，阿斯顿·马丁确认萨弗诺尔已经卸任CEO和F1车队领队一职。之后2月中旬，在新赛季季前测试开始前，Alpine宣布萨弗诺尔加入团队。

当被Motorsport.com问及自他表示没有离开阿斯顿·马丁的计划后，是什么发生了改变？萨弗诺尔解释道“随着时间的推移，事情发生了变化”。

“在当时，是没有离开的打算，” 萨弗诺尔本周在巴林F1第二次季前测试时说。“不过随着时间的推移，阿斯顿·马丁发生了一些变化，我觉得如果自己寻求外部机会对所有人都更好。”

Otmar Szafnauer, Team Principal, Alpine F1, Esteban Ocon, Alpine F1 Team

Photo by: Mark Sutton / Motorsport Images

在车队从印度力量转变成Racing Point的过程中，萨弗诺尔发挥了重要作用。2018年印度力量遭遇财务危机，后被劳伦斯·斯特罗尔挽救。斯特罗尔入股英国汽车制造商阿斯顿·马丁后，2021年车队也更名为阿斯顿·马丁。不过前迈凯伦F1车队领队马丁·惠特马什被任命为阿斯顿·马丁新的集团CEO后，大家对萨弗诺尔的职位和职权范围产生了疑问，虽然他表示情况不会发生变化。

萨弗诺尔加入Alpine是Alpine F1团队管理层结构重组的一部分，其中还包括前执行总监马辛·布德科夫斯基的离开。

“我很享受在这的工作”，萨弗诺尔说，“这是我在这里的第六天。我在工厂待了几天，四处走走，努力在一开始的时候就和尽可能多的人碰面。我很惊喜看到了许多过去一起工作过的熟悉面孔，有本田的、英美车队的、甚至印度力量的。我了解那些人。这里充满潜力，大家志同道合，在往同一个方向使劲儿，希望能够做得更好。车队有着辉煌的历史，取得过胜利，基础设施很好，所以我真的非常期待和他们一起工作。”