De la Rosa “shocked” by transformation and investment at Aston Martin

2022 F1 season

Posted on

| Written by

Aston Martin’s new team ambassador Pedro de la Rosa says he was deeply impressed by the developments being made at their base.

De la Rosa was a test driver for the team in 1998 when it competed under its original guise, Jordan. It has been through several hands since then until it was purchased by Lawrence Stroll in 2018. It was rebranded as Aston Martin last season.

The team announced today it had hired the veteran of over 100 grands prix to act as an ambassador.

He said the role “won’t be very different from what I used to do for other teams in the past, except for the most important difference, which is that I’m not driving.

“But all the rest is pretty similar when you have to give support to the marketing and communications side of the business.”

Stroll embarked on an ambitious development at the team, building a new, “state of the art” factory at a cost of £200 million. The team has swelled the ranks of its technical departments with hirings from its rivals including, notably, former Red Bull aerodynamicist Dan Fallows.

De la Rosa visited the team in July, before being offered his new role, and was impressed by what he saw. “I’ve just arrived here and obviously I know very little about the team compared to the people that have been working in Aston Martin,” said De la Rosa.

Advert | Become a RaceFans supporter and go ad-free

“When I came back to ‘team Silverstone’ – because my first ever team in Formula 1 was Jordan Grand Prix in ’98 – I knew the roots of the team, back then. And when I arrived this summer in July, I was shocked.

“I was shocked about the transformation, the investment that was being made in the new factory, the wind tunnel. But more importantly in the ambition of the team members, the people that I met.

“So I was really touched. And it was back then when I said to myself, wow, it would be great to get involved with Aston Martin. Just inside myself, it just grew this feeling that this is the right place, the right team.”

He admitted the thought of rejoining his former team also appealed. “Maybe it was the fact as well that I was visiting my old team,” he said. “It also helped a bit to bring up the emotions.

“But it was a fantastic feeling to meet the engineers. They all believe the team could do it, they could get to winning ways. So that made me change switch and think, ‘wow, I want to be here’.

“I was lucky that the interest came from Aston Martin then because many times the love doesn’t come on both sides. But in this time and in this case, it happened.”

Advert | Become a RaceFans supporter and go ad-free

2022 F1 season

Browse all 2022 F1 season articles

Author information

Keith Collantine
Lifelong motor sport fan Keith set up RaceFans in 2005 - when it was originally called F1 Fanatic. Having previously worked as a motoring...

Got a potential story, tip or enquiry? Find out more about RaceFans and contact us here.

10 comments on “De la Rosa “shocked” by transformation and investment at Aston Martin”

  1. I’m “shocked” (shocked!) to find DLR shilling Chinese automobiles.

  2. Roth Man (@rdotquestionmark)
    13th October 2022, 16:27

    So how do huge infrastructure investments like wind tunnels and a whole new factory work within the cost cap regulations? Just out of curiosity I know a lot of this started a couple of years ago.

    1. @rdotquestionmark Not sure if i can post links here, but from the formula1 website (article from May 2020 so may be outdated):

      Under the original cap, teams were allowed to incur a total of £36m on capital costs – for plant and machinery at teams’ factories over a four-year window from 2021-2024. This has been increased to $45m for this period, as some teams have had to defer costs initially planned for 2020 into 2021 because of the pandemic. The allowance returns to $36m for the 2022-2025 four-year period and all subsequent four-year periods.

      Note this is just for plant and machinery, so there may be a separate budget from infrastrucure projects or they might be excluded altogether. It could also be that long-term projects which were planned before finalisation of the cost cap rules are excluded from the cost cap. For reference, there’s an article on the same site from September last year saying the new facility was estimated to cost £150-200m.

      1. Well, they are in significant beach of the cost cap…
        This maybe why!

        1. No they’re not @MrDan.

          AM were found to have had a procedural breach along with Williams.

          Fromthe Sky Sports website:

          Aston Martin, who were previously rumoured to have also overspent, only committed a ‘procedural’ breach, which is related to filling out forms incorrectly – the same as Williams earlier this year.

          Only RBR were found to have committed a financial breach and that is labelled minor currently.

  3. I mean, it’s been 24 years. It’s like saying you are shocked that smartphones are way more advanced than your 1998 Motorola brick.

    1. Motorola is way to advance i still use my Nokia 3310 …… yes i am that old :)

      1. @sjaakfoo before that i used a Motorola but that was just a brick telephone with no features the Nokia had. The ZTelephone Motorola was a nice little thing but the battery was huge (I had the extended version) So everyone knows where the term brick come from :)

    2. Well not much has changed. Ferrari still failing to win the championship. Williams are still in the same buddle they started in 1998. A young guy wins a second title to their nation. Nokia is still making phones. France is the reigning world champion in World Cup. There is a war in europe. A Schumacher is driving his 2nd season in F1. Corona beer was the best selling imported beer in 1998 and in 2022 it could also be.

Comments are closed.