BWT Racing Point F1 Team boss Otmar Szafnauer has played down the chances of Toto Wolff having a role at the team once they become Aston Martin.
Wolff, the Team Principal at Mercedes AMG Petronas, has made a personal investment in Aston Martin during the F1 hiatus, seeing him hold 0.95% of the company.
In January, Lawrence Stroll, the father of driver Lance Stroll, took a large share of the company which would see Racing Point transform to a works team next season.
With the investment by Wolff and Aston Martin coming to F1, it was suggested he could leave the Silver Arrows, whom he has won multiple Formula 1 World Championships with.
However, he made it clear within the short term the German will not leave the team, who took the 2019 FIA Formula 1 World Championship with Lewis Hamilton.
Szafnauer, also down played the rumours, as he spoke to SkySports F1, explaining his belief that Wolff will play a different role with the British car brand. He praised Wolff, but conveyed his opinion in the two companies:
“He’s done an amazing job at Mercedes, but I can’t see him having a stake in our team for example,
“The road car company, having shares in that is completely different than having shares in a loss-making Formula 1 team.“
But the Racing Point CEO made it clear he does not know everything. Saying the last time he could speak to the German was the 2020 Formula 1 Australian Grand Prix, before its cancellation.
“I haven’t spoken to him in six or seven weeks since the Australian Grand Prix. I’ve seen him on a couple of these Zoom calls, but I haven’t asked him that question,
“But knowing Toto like I do, I think he’s absolutely right, it was a good time to buy if you look at the share price and the trend.
“Toto’s pretty smart at that stuff, I think he’s made a little bit of money in these type of things, and I wouldn’t doubt what he says. I think he’s absolutely right, good time to buy.“
