“The fish always stinks from the head” – Former team boss reveals the reason behind Aston Martin’s poor showing in 2022 F1 season

Aston Martin has failed to score a single point in 2022 and is currently languishing at the bottom end of the points table. The outfit’s former team principal, Colin Kolles, lays the blame squarely on owner Lawrence Stroll’s management style.

Kolles led the outfit under its various guises as Jordan and Force India between 2005 and 2008. The Romanian-German believes Stroll’s meddlesome management style, as well as his desire to see instant results, is the root cause behind Aston Martin’s inability to progress up the grid. Speaking to German publication Sport1, Kolles said:

“The fish always stinks from the head. I can see the racing team developing into nowhere. You have a team owner who thinks he is the team boss, who knows everything better and thinks he should put his son up front with all his might. For me, that is the completely wrong approach.”

He went on to criticize Stroll for demanding instant success instead of coming up with a plan for long term-gains, saying:

“If someone thinks they’ll get into Formula 1 and be in the front ranks overnight, then it won’t work that quickly. You have to have a plan. You could have had the plan that new rules would come in 2022 and work on them. However, Mr. Stroll decided a few years ago that it should now be done quickly, no matter what the cost.”

Kolles believes Stroll will need to take a hands-off approach, only taking care of the finances of the outfit while letting other people within the team do their job to achieve any kind of success. He added, saying:

“As long as Mr. [Martin] Whitmarsh is in charge and Mr. Stroll doesn’t see that he’s staying at home and only setting budgets and letting people work who know their stuff and getting the right people to lead the team, it’s never going to work.”

Aston Martin had huge expectations ahead of the 2022 season following a much-needed injection of cash as well as the arrival of many high-profile talents from across the F1 grid. When they became the first team to reveal their actual 2022 car ahead of pre-season testing, many were hopeful of the team’s chances.

Across testing, however, the team’s optimism evaporated as they discovered that their car wasn’t as competitive as they had originally believed it to be.

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Colin Kolles expects Sebastian Vettel to abandon Aston Martin unless there is a turnaround in performance

Colin Kolles believes Aston Martin’s star driver Sebastian Vettel might jump ship soon if the team fails to make a quick turnaround in terms of on-track performance. Speaking to Sport1, he said:

“I don’t think he [Vettel] wants to drive at all. He just doesn’t want to do that to himself. That’s certainly a very daring thesis, but I’m sure that he thinks a lot about whether he’s still going to do it.”

When Vettel was announced as a replacement for Sergio Perez at Aston Martin in 2020, the news was met with a wave of enthusiasm and positivity. The British squad, then known for making the most out of its limited resources, was thought to be the perfect landing spot for the German after he parted ways with Ferrari.

The partnership, however, failed to yield many results apart from a pair of podiums last year. While Vettel has been performing beyond expectations, Aston Martin has failed to give him a car that merits his talents.

In 2022, the German is yet to sample the car in race trim, as a COVID-19 infection ruled him out of both races so far. Meanwhile, his replacement Nico Hulkenberg and teammate Lance Stroll have both failed to score any points in the first two races of the season.