Aston Martin boss Otmar Szafnauer believes it will at least three years until the team can be title contenders in Formula 1.
The Silverstone-based outfit has been in a state of rebuilding since it was bought by Lawrence Stroll in 2018, after years of growing financial issues under Force India owner Vijay Mallya.
And now the rebrand as Aston Martin has brought a new sense of optimism that the team can join Mercedes, Red Bull and let’s add Ferrari to the list of teams who can regularly fight for wins and championships in F1 in the future.
But despite making big gains last year, Szafnauer warns there is still a long way to go.
“It’s a lot easier to say we’re going to be fighting and winning a World Championship than actually doing it,” he said after the launch of the AMR21 on Wednesday.
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“The two things that have to happen is one we need a good plan, in order for us to start today and become championship contenders, then we’ve got to execute. And we’re in the midst of that planning now.
“The execution will definitely take some time. People in F1 and other teams have said you know you’ve got to give us three to five years to do so and we’re no different,” he argued.
“For the last year we’ve planned a new factory with new infrastructure and a place to house all of us under one roof to grow the team, and the implementation of that has just now begun at Silverstone.
“Towards the end of 2022, we should be moving into a new factory for example, and within that factory, we’re going to need state of the art tools that will help us design and develop a car that’s worthy of contending for a World Championship, so that’s a few years away.
“If I have to look into the future, you know it’ll be in the three to five year time period.”
It might make sense to think the new technical regulations in 2022 could help quicken up that process, as it did for Red Bull and others in 2009.
But Sebastian Vettel, who of course benefitted from Red Bull’s rise 12 years ago, looked at the Mercedes example to suggest otherwise.
“I think it is a longer-term project if you really want to win,” he said, responding to Szafnauer.
“If you look at Mercedes, they started somewhere in 2011 or 2012 and then really got into the winning ways with a new power unit [in 2014] when they just got out of the gates a lot faster than anyone else.
“But the car wasn’t really that great in 2014 chassis-wise, and from then onwards, if you say from 2011 then it took them another five years to really build a car that was also considered the best chassis.
“So that’s the time it takes but then everybody has that time and not everybody has done the job,” Vettel added.
“There are a lot of projects going around, different manufacturers, and in the end, only one can win and Mercedes has been the one that’s been the strongest. So hats off to them, and the others were just not good enough.”
As for what he would consider Aston Martin’s main goal in 2021 to be, the four-time champion replied: “I think it’s difficult to set a goal for this year.
“Obviously, the team fought for third last year in the Constructors’ and that’s sort of the unofficial goal – or maybe official goal – for this year, but people are hungry to win.
“I think it’s the first shot with similar money to anyone else on the grid, probably a rare shot, so it won’t be easy to catch up in a breath but the ambition is definitely there to catch up, not just from Lawrence [Stroll] but from the whole team.
“So far I’m in and I’m happy to do everything I can to help.”
