Cowell’s blueprint for F1 success: the Mercedes methods he’s imposing at Aston Martin

The picture became clearer when in November it was announced that Fallows had been switched out of the F1 project, a move seemingly intended to make space in the organisation chart for Cardile.

Friday’s announcement brought further change. Having been named as CEO in July prior to starting work in late September former Mercedes power unit boss Cowell has now been given the team principal title that was previously held by Mike Krack, who has become chief trackside officer.

In effect the team has been split into racing and factory operations, with Krack overseeing the former and Cardile, as chief technical officer, the latter. Both men report to Cowell.

To recap, Newey, who starts on March 1, is a shareholder and managing technical partner. One assumes that he sits outside the above arrangement, but with the ability to contribute as and when he can.

The unusual aspect is that Krack has lost the team principal title but has stayed with the team in a redefined role, rather than been booted out. He still has a huge responsibility, but inevitably the outside world will see it as a demotion, and Aston will have to somehow overcome that perception.

The team wants us to view the changes as made “for clarity of leadership and as part of a shift to a flatter structure.”

A new face for Aston Martin

These days most teams have multiple leaders. McLaren has Zak Brown as CEO and Andrea Stella as team principal, and it seems to work well. Sauber is heading into a similar arrangement with Matteo Binotto and the incoming Jonathan Wheatley. Aston however has chosen to combine the CEO and team principal titles.

In each case the people involved have different skillsets. It’s obvious for example that with his background Cowell will have more input in big technical and engineering decisions than Brown does at McLaren. Cowell in turn does not have the marketing Midas touch that Brown has, and finding new sponsors is not part of his remit.

Cowell was originally seen as a direct replacement for previous CEO Martin Whitmarsh – ironically the man who spotted his potential when he worked for Cosworth in McLaren’s HB V8 days in 1993, and who later headhunted him to join Mercedes.

Whitmarsh played a huge but largely unseen role in helping to build up and restructure Aston over the past few years. He didn’t come to many races and kept a low profile when he did, leaving the day-to-day running of the team at the track initially to Otmar Szafnauer, before the American was kicked out and replaced by Krack.

Stroll has obviously decided that Cowell should have the team principal title and be the main public face of the team. Whether that choice was always the intention when he hired him in July, or was influenced both by poor results on track and by the positive impact Cowell made in his first months in the job, remains to be seen.

Cowell speaks Honda’s language

Cowell was certainly an inspired hiring by Stroll, who clearly recognised the success he enjoyed when running the Mercedes HPP operation. Yes, running a team is very different, but the essential management skills carry over.

And crucially we are about to enter a new era during which the power unit will be king, and F1 switches to sustainable fuels. Aston has two key partners in Honda and Aramco with whom it must work closely, and Cowell is the ideal man to help to stitch it all together – he speaks their language.

It’s no coincidence that in early October and within days of starting his job Cowell went to visit Honda in Sakura and then Aramco in Saudi Arabia. He saw up close the facilities that both companies have, and met his new colleagues.

Until he joined Aston Cowell had not been to an F1 race since 2019. When his subsequent departure from Mercedes was announced it was logical to assume that he would eventually pop up at another power unit manufacturer. In fact he spent a few years at businesses unrelated to the sport before an opportunity to return came up.

On his first race weekend appearance with Aston in Austin last year he gave an interesting insight into how it came about.

“When Lawrence got in touch with me around Easter time I’d spoken to several F1 teams, most of them on the power unit side,” he said. “But I guess I didn’t want to do the same. I wanted to do something different.

“We’re impatient, so we want it now”

“I had the pleasure to experience some other industries, but I think F1’s got this unique aspect of having really high ambition in terms of technical products. The machine that’s racing on the track is really, really awesome. It most definitely is the best on the planet.

“But we’re impatient as well, so we want it now. It’s that competition to innovate better than anybody else, quicker than everybody else, and that’s unique. So to come back to that, but for it to be on the team side rather than on the power unit side, brings me back to something that I loved and I enjoyed for three decades, but a different challenge.

“Yes, it’s a different group of people, it’s a different set of technical challenges. The world of aerodynamics, vehicle dynamics is quite different. Still, it’s maths and physics.”

Cowell’s crash course

He may have huge knowledge of one aspect of F1, but Cowell wasn’t afraid to admit that he had much to learn.

One of his first moves was to ask Fallows for a crash course in aerodynamics. That was a logical step, especially as the team is switching from renting time in the Mercedes wind tunnel to its own onsite facility, which will be a crucial part of its future performance.

“I was going to go to the Singapore GP, but then decided to spend those days in the factory,” he said.

“And one of the first people I spoke to in my early days at the factory was Dan Fallows. And I said to Dan, ‘I know that aerodynamicists want lots of power from the engine, no heat rejection, no aero blockage. I know all that. But what else does an aerodynamicist want?’

“And he put together a work experience package for me. I spent time with all the principal aerodynamicists.

“I put a hoodie on and crept into MGP and watched some runs at the wind tunnel, spent time with the aero performance group that were measuring the pressure tappings in Singapore, and then working out how that ties in with aero data and CFD.I guess I’m now wearing a bobble hat called an aerodynamicist…”

”Writing reports and having meetings, I’m not too keen on that sort of thing…”

That anecdote was a fascinating insight into Cowell’s hands-on way of working, and he gave a few other pointers.

“At HPP the thing that I hated was wasted time,” he said. “If as an organisation, it wasn’t efficient, that made me grumpy. I’ve used that sort of approach with some other industries and some other topics.

“And I guess that’s what I’m going to try and do for Aston Martin as well: look at aero efficiency but the organisation, how do we get it so that 900 people at Silverstone are organised well, so that their day is efficient.

“It makes me grumpy if there’s overlap of responsibility, it makes me grumpier still if there’s a gap and there’s a lack of communication. So how do we get 900 people to work efficiently, so it’s like one brain? Writing reports and having meetings, I’m not too keen on that sort of thing…”

He added: “My job is to create a team, and in a team, everybody knows what their role is. They know their position on the pitch. And my job is to discuss with each of those players what they could do to get better.

“It’s not to tell them. It’s just to instil a high performing atmosphere of doing something, learning from that experience, thinking of new ideas, going again.”

Those words give further insight into what Cowell has been doing over the past three or four months, and perhaps also why things have changed, with his move to the team principal role a part of that clarifying of responsibilities.

His record as a boss at HPP speaks for itself, but his current role is more about man management skills than specific technical expertise.

“I think individuals need to feel that they’re working in a safe environment, that they can innovate, that they can try new things,” he said.

“And you need to provide a culture in the business where we’re trying things, and a culture in the business that accepts that they’re not perfect, and that’s what we’re working on.

“And you’ve got to have a goal, a mission. You’ve got to have that mission to get to Mars, or whatever your vision is in.

“That’s where Lawrence’s view is wonderful. We’re going to get to the front, we’re going to win races, we want to win championships, while respecting that the opposition are impressive. So, yeah, it’s 900 people, some going trackside, a lot in the factory.

“Everybody understanding that each individual is working their best, but then reflecting, ‘how can I get better?’

In retrospect one of the most salient points he made in Austin was that it was important that the team be ready for the arrival of its highest-profile recruit. Ultimately that’s key to what was announced on Friday.

“I’m getting to know the way the team at Silverstone works today,” he said. “And then we’ve got Adrian joining, we’ve got Enrico joining.

“What I want to do is make the organisational changes that I think will help all of us going forwards, so that there’s not only office space and a desk and a chair and a drawing board ready, but there’s also a structure that’s got their name in it.

“My ambition is that their very first day in the factory is a working day, not a reflecting and making change day. I see that’s my role as the CEO.”