F1: Aston Martin Hires Former Honda Executive Mark White

In the last week, Lawrence Stroll had indicated that Aston Martin was on the cusp of announcing another major hiring.

By Sahil Gupta

1 mins read

Published on July 15, 2021

Highlights

White was the head of production and quality control at Honda
He takes up a similar role at the Aston Martin team as Honda leaves F1
Aston Martin has poached many people from Red Bull already

Lawrence Stroll is continuing his massive investment in the Aston Martin F1 team and this time around he's hired another senior executive from a rival team. Aston Martin has hired Mark White as operations director from Honda who was previously the head of planning, production control and quality assurance. White who had been at Honda since 1994 had also led Synchro Motorsport, the race team based in the Honda UK manufacturing site. Aston Martin has been raiding Red Bull's staff, but this time around it has gone for its close partner Honda which is leaving F1 next year. White will basically be taking on a very similar role to what he held at Honda. Recently, the hiring of Dan Fallows as Aston Martin's technical director has caused a bit of a storm as Red Bull refuses to release the highly rated aerodynamicst before the end of his contract. "Mark White's arrival at Aston Martin Cognizant Formula One Team will be a key appointment and add valuable expertise to our factory operations. Mark's experience of the automotive world will be especially relevant as the cost cap comes into force with greater emphasis on containing manufacturing expenses," said Otmar Szafnauer, CEO and team principal of the Aston Martin F1 team. The Honda senior manager will be operations director at Aston Martin "He will also continue our push to improve quality and efficiency in our production and manufacturing systems. It is yet another demonstration of our desire to strengthen the team in all areas with another experienced senior leader," Szafnauer added. In the last week, Lawrence Stroll had indicated that Aston Martin was on the cusp of announcing another major hiring. He revealed that the staff had grown from 400 to 500 already from the day he acquired the erstwhile Force India F1 team. He intends to hire 300 more people. Aston Martin is also developing its own wind tunnel and is also building a new factory to accommodate all these new hires. "I am hugely proud to be joining the talented men and women at Aston Martin Cognizant Formula One Team this September. I have been extremely impressed by the passion and desire of the leadership team, and I believe the roadmap ahead, including the new factory build, will allow the team to be truly competitive in the years to come. I will do all I can to contribute towards the team's journey to the front of the grid," said White in a statement.