GT: Tobias Moers Replaces Andy Palmer As CEO At Aston Martin.

Aston Martin, the publicly listed luxury car company that returned to top-level sportscar competition in 2005, has sacked its CEO Andy Palmer. Palmer will be replaced by Mercedes-AMG boss Tobias Moers.

Palmer joined Aston Martin in October 2014 after a 23-year career at Nissan where he rose to the position of Chief Planning Officer. During his tenure at the iconic British marque, founded in 1913 by Lionel Martin and Robert Bamford, Andy Palmer oversaw the 2018 flotation of the firm in a public IPO. However, after launching at £19 a share, the stock is now languishing at less than 2% of the flotation price.

Canadian billionaire and owner of Racing Point F1 Lawrence Stroll injected £171m in a round of emergency funding in April 2020. Stroll then took on the position of Executive Chairman.

Andy Palmer was an immensely likeable character with a passion for all things automotive. During his five-and-a-half-year term at the Gaydon manufacturer, Palmer embarked on an ambitious expansion plan which included the launch the company’s first SUV, the DBX which is due to be built at a new plant built for the purpose in Wales.

Aston Martin has considerable involvement in sportscar racing with a two-car factory entry in the FIA World Endurance Championship and extensive involvement in global GT racing. The new-for-2019 Aston Martin Vantage AMR GT3 won the British GT Championship in the hands of TF Sport’s Graham Davidson and Jonny Adam at the first time of asking.

With the company’s stated intention to enter the 2021 Formula One World Championship as Aston Martin F1, there will be the inevitable questions as to how committed it will be to remain in GT and endurance racing.

Earlier in 2020, the company postponed its plans to develop the Valkyrie to race in the Hypercar category of the FIA World Endurance Championship, a move that the Automobile Club de l’Ouest, joint promoters of the series, described as “very regrettable but perhaps not unexpected in the light of persistent rumours over the last six months concerning the fragility of the brand’s exposure in the rapidly evolving automotive market.”