Otmar Szafnauer discusses a possible return to Formula 1, but serving as team principal could be difficult for him given the current situation
Otmar Szafnauer, the former team principal of Force India, Aston Martin, and Alpine, could envision a return to Formula 1. However, he does not expect to take on the role of team principal again, partly because the nature of the job has changed significantly in recent years.
“What I miss is the competitive nature of Formula 1,” Szafnauer says on the High Performance Racing podcast. “What I don’t miss is the traveling and a few other things.”
As long as he can be of use to a team—whether to improve it or build it up—he could envision taking on a new job in the premier class. “ “It has to be at the right level, though, and I have to bring real added value,” Szafnauer emphasizes.
While this may sound at first like the team principal position, according to the Romanian-born executive, that’s not necessarily what he has in mind, “because I’ve already done that,” he says. “And these days, it seems that team principals tend to be former race engineers.”
Whether it’s James Vowles at Williams, Andrea Stella at McLaren, or Laurent Mekies at Red Bull: Many team principals in Formula 1 these days have a technical background and are no longer the traditional managers like Szafnauer, who holds a master’s degree in economics and finance.
But he isn’t necessarily a fan of that trend: “With all due respect: Some of these race engineers—not all of them—have, in my opinion, different skills than those needed to be a successful team principal.”
Szafnauer worked for twelve years as team principal of Force India and its successors, Racing Point and Aston Martin, before leaving the team in January 2022—three months after Martin Whitmarsh arrived.
“I was CEO and team principal. He came on board as group CEO,” he recalls. “And within a few weeks, he took over the majority of my responsibilities—about 80 percent of them. He said, ‘You can handle that 20 percent stuff at the track’—and I thought to myself: You can’t have two popes.”
Szafnauer moved to Alpine, where he was fired as team principal during the 2023 Belgian Grand Prix. Since then, the 62-year-old has been part of a podcast team and serves as CEO of the Formula 2 team Van Amersfoort.