Fernando Alonso: I’m glad Cowell came to us

Aston Martin announced this week that Cowell will take over from CEO Martin Whitmarsh in October. Fernando Alonso is happy with the changes taking place.

Fernando Alonso: “Whoever was mentioned in relation to our team. The only one who was not talked about was Andy Cowell, his contract was a surprise to everyone.

I am happy. I don’t know him personally and I respected him as a competitor and now I am looking forward to meeting Andy and discussing his opinion about the team. It is clear that Lawrence Stroll has a lot of confidence in him.

I am grateful to Martin Whitmarsh for his great contribution to the team. When Martin arrived we were just in the process of changing to the Aston Martin name and he did a lot for the team and the organisation. I hope that before Martin leaves we will have time to reward him with a good result.

Aston Martin is a very interesting project. We know that our results this year are not good enough. We need to do better to be in the top ten in every race and earn points, and then fight for podiums and victories, like we did last year.

We don’t have that capability yet, so it’s a little bit harder to express how motivated and inspired everyone on the team is right now. And we continue to be very attractive to talented people, as we see with Andy and some of the other names that are being linked to the team.

Some of you went on excursions to our base today and saw new objects. I come back more often to work on the simulator and see the progress every week. The second and third buildings are almost finished, the wind tunnel will be finished by the end of the year. We have created very attractive conditions for many people in the paddock and for many great engineers. The team is in good shape, we just have to get a result on track on Sunday, although that is the most difficult thing.”