'Exclusive: future of Aston Martin CEO Tobias Moers in doubt' read our carefully crafted headline of 7 January of this year - about the 12th draft it had been through; likewise the story that it led to, detailing the firm’s rocky financial path and the flood of distinguished talent that had poured out of the company under the German’s tenure.
We - Formula 1 journalist Dieter Rencken, so often a source of exclusives, and I - settled on 'in doubt' because we couldn’t ascertain the timeline that Lawrence Stroll, chairman and part-owner of Aston Martin, was working to, or if the division between the company and its CEO was recoverable.
The evidence - multiple confirmations from former and current employees that a split was forthcoming, plus a certainty that conversations with potential replacements had taken place informally - suggested it was not, but you can never know for sure in these situations, especially where swinging egos are concerned.
