F1 Team Principals 2022

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Formula 1 teams are big companies that require a large number of people and a great deal of coordination for their proper functioning, as there is much more behind them than just what we see on TV.

Within an F1 team, the team principal is a very important figure, as he is the public face of the team, who represents it both in interviews and in the political aspect, manages the structure and the environment, and makes decisions of great importance. After all, it is the boss of an F1 team.

The roles, knowledge, and skills of each core team vary from team to team, as some are more skilled in management or business, while others have skills in diplomacy or supervision.

In the past, most of the team principals were the owners or founders of the teams, but nowadays, most of them are hired or hold shares, being part of a much larger organization. That said, let\’s look at who the F1 2022 team principals are.

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1. Mercedes – Toto Wolff

Mercedes team principal since 2013

Wins as team principal: 114

Titles as team principal: 8 constructors\’ championships and 7 drivers\’ championships

The Austrian Toto Wolff was a racing driver during the 90s and early 2000s, obtaining some victories, such as the 24 Hours of Nürburgring in his category, a victory in the FIA GT Championship, and another in the Italian GT Championship.

After ending his racing career, Wolff bought shares in the Williams F1 team in 2009, becoming the team\’s executive director in 2012. A year later, he became the executive director of Mercedes, a team he joined alongside Niki Lauda, who acquired shares. Wolff currently owns 33% of Mercedes shares and 16% of Williams shares.

As Mercedes\’ team principal, he has not done badly at all, as since he joined the Silver Arrows, the team has lived through one of the most dominating periods in F1 history, winning 8 constructors\’ and 7 drivers\’ championships between 2014 and 2021.

The Austrian has managed the team relentlessly, creating one of the most efficient and well-organized teams for years. Now it seems that Red Bull has taken over from them, so it will be interesting to see how Wolff handles this new situation.

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2. Red Bull – Christian Horner

Red Bull team principal since 2005

Wins as team principal: 87

Titles as team principal: 4 constructors\’ championships and 5 drivers\’ championships

Like Toto Wolff, British Christian Horner began his motorsport career as a racing driver, competing in Formula 3000 in the late 1990s with his team, Arden. Horner retired as a driver in 1999 at the age of 25 but continued in charge of the team, which won 2002, 2003, and 2004 championships.

After that, the Briton was signed by Red Bull, which made its Formula 1 debut after buying the Jaguar team. In just 15 years, Red Bull has gone from being a new team run by an energy drinks brand to one of the most successful F1 teams.

Christian Horner, the team principal, together with Helmut Marko, team advisor, and Adrian Newey, technical director, has formed a golden trio that has gradually taken the team to the top.

Red Bull won it all from 2010 to 2013 with its star driver, Sebastian Vettel. After several years in the shadow of the dominant Mercedes, they now seem to have taken over, returning to the winning path. Max Verstappen, the team\’s new rockstar, snatched the title from Lewis Hamilton in 2021, and in 2022 both Red Bull and Verstappen are on course for both titles.

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3. Ferrari – Mattia Binotto

Ferrari team principal since 2019

Wins as team principal: 7

Titles as team principal: 0

Mattia Binotto is the perfect example of how to reach the top starting from the bottom. The Swiss graduated in mechanical engineering and 1995, joined Ferrari in the engine department.

After almost 20 years with the team and having enjoyed Michael Schumacher\’s dominating stint and Kimi Räikkönen\’s championship in 2007, in 2013, he became head of the engine department and, in 2016, the chief technical officer.

During the first years of the hybrid era, Ferrari went through a period of restructuring, in which they were not very competitive and committed many management and administration failures. In 2 years, they went from having as drivers the veterans Sebastian Vettel and Kimi Räikkönen to the young Charles Leclerc and Carlos Sainz.

Mattia Binotto was promoted to team principal in 2019, Culminating in this restructuring, replacing Maurizio Arrivabene. The team was looking for a new air with which to achieve championships after so many years without success, something that, after 3 years, they still have not achieved.

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4. McLaren – Andreas Seidl

McLaren team principal since 2019

Wins as team principal: 1

Titles as team principal: 0         

Although McLaren is one of the most historic teams on the grid, surprisingly, it has only had 5 team principals in its history: Bruce McLaren, Teddy Mayer, Ron Dennis, Martin Whitmarsh, and Andreas Seidl.

Before joining McLaren, Andreas Seidl already had a wealth of experience. He worked with BMW in F1 between 2000 and 2009 DTM in 2012 and 2014. He became the team principal of the successful Porsche LMP1 program.

Like Binotto at Ferrari, Seidl joined McLaren in 2019 when the team underwent an internal restructuring phase. After the dreadful results of the Honda engine between 2015 and 2017, the Woking-based team used Renault engines for 3 seasons, achieving some podiums, before switching back to Mercedes engines in 2021, with whom they had achieved so many successes together in past decades.

With Mercedes, they have remained competitive in the upper midfield, achieving occasional podiums and the team\’s first victory since 2012, achieved at the 2021 Italian GP by Daniel Ricciardo. However, McLaren wants to return to winning ways, which seems a bit far away at the moment.

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5. Alpine – Otmar Szafnauer

Alpine team principal since 2022

Wins as team principal: 0

Titles as team principal: 0

Otmar Szafnauer has a wealth of Formula 1 experience behind him. The Romanian-American graduated in electrical engineering and joined the Ford Motor Company in 1986, thanks to which he could work in Formula Ford during the 1990s.

His experience in Formula Ford earned him a position as Operations Director at British American Racing in Formula 1 in 1998. After that, he joined the Honda F1 Team, which he left in 2008, before joining Force India in 2009.

With Force India, he played an important role in the development and improvement of the team, rising to team principal. Szafnauer remained with the team until January 2022, a year after it was renamed Aston Martin, and signed with Alpine as team principal.

With Alpine, Szafnauer has promised to fight for championships in 100 races, i.e., in 2026. So far, one of the first consequences of his tenure has been the departure of Fernando Alonso from the team. Szafnauer still has a long way to go to fight for championships.

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6. AlphaTauri – Franz Tost

AlphaTauri team principal since 2005

Wins as team principal: 2

Titles as team principal: 0

Austrian Franz Tost grew up admiring his national hero Jochen Rindt, the only driver in F1 history to win the title posthumously in 1970. Tost was a racing driver in his early twenties, competing in Formula Ford and Formula Three and winning the Austrian Formula Ford Championship in 1983.

However, he gave up racing because he didn\’t think he was skilled enough to make it to the top of motorsport, so he studied Sports Science and Management. After that, he found a job as team manager of Willi Weber\’s Formula 3 team, where he met the young driver Ralf Schumacher, with whom he established a close relationship.

In 2000, Ralf Schumacher and Tost joined the Williams F1 team, and after 5 seasons working as Operations Manager for BMW, the team\’s engine supplier, in 2005, he was appointed as team principal of the newly formed Scuderia Toro Rosso, under the ambitious project of Red Bull of having two F1 teams.

Since then, Tost has remained at the team\’s helm, training drivers from Red Bull\’s development program to promote them to its big brother, Red Bull, where they fight for championships. Sebastian Vettel, Daniel Ricciardo, Carlos Sainz, and Max Verstappen are just some of the drivers who have passed through Toro Rosso (now called AlphaTauri) under Tost\’s command.

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7. Aston Martin – Mike Krack

Aston Martin team principal since 2022

Wins as team principal: 0

Titles as team principal: 0

Mike Krack was appointed team principal of the Aston Martin team at the beginning of 2022, following the departure of Otmar Szafnauer, and although this is the first time he has served as team principal, the Luxembourger has a wealth of experience in motorsport and Formula 1.

Krack graduated as an engineer and, in 1998, joined BMW as a test engineer. In 2001 he joined Sauber, rising to become Felipe Massa\’s race engineer in 2003 and then Chief Engineer, where he remained until 2008.

After his stint in Formula 1, Krack worked in Formula 3 on the Porsche LMP1 project. From 2014 to 2022, he returned to BMW as a senior performance engineer in various categories.

Now, in 2022, the Luxembourger is back in Formula 1, and he doesn\’t have an easy job, as he must take the historic Aston Martin to the top after it arrives in the category in 2021 under the major investment of Lawrence Stroll.

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8. Williams – Jost Capito

Williams team principal since 2021

Wins as team principal: 0

Titles as team principal: 0

Jost Capito took over as team principal and CEO of the historic Williams team after the departure of the Williams family from Formula 1, in one of the worst moments in the team\’s history in the category.

Capito has a 30-year career in motorsports, during which he has worked in numerous positions. The German began working with BMW in 1985 in the high-performance engine development sector, being part of the truck class victory of the Paris-Dakar.

After that, he was part of Porsche and Sauber and then worked for a decade and a half in rallying with Ford and Volkswagen, achieving great success with both brands. In 2016, Capito entered Formula 1 with McLaren, who only stayed for a few months.

In 2020, the German returned to the pinnacle of motorsport as CEO of Williams, following Dorilton\’s acquisition of the team, and in 2021 he became team principal.

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9. Alfa Romeo – Frédéric Vasseur

Alfa Romeo team principal since 2017

Wins as team principal: 0

Titles as team principal: 0

Frédéric Vasseur studied engineering and aeronautics and subsequently set up his team in the junior Formula series, ASM (later renamed ART). Vasseur\’s team had great success in the lower categories, and the Frenchman oversaw Lewis Hamilton\’s titles in Formula 3 Euroseries and GP2 before the Englishman moved up to Formula 1.

After building a reputation as a great team manager and fostering talent, in 2016, he was called by the F1 Renault team as team principal, although he only stayed for one year.

However, in 2017 he was hired by Sauber, now Alfa Romeo, as team principal, which he is trying to turn into a strong midfield team. One of his big signings was current Ferrari driver Charles Leclerc.

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10. Haas – Guenther Steiner

Haas team principal since 2014

Wins as team principal: 0

Titles as team principal: 0

Guenther Steiner studied engineering, but before finishing his degree, he began his career as a rally mechanic for the Mazda team in 1986, and from there, he worked his way up through the ranks in various teams over the next decade, becoming the director of engineering for the Ford World Rally Team in 2000 and 2001.

After that, Steiner joined the Jaguar Formula 1 team in 2001 with Ford as team principal, where he stayed for only a couple of seasons. Steiner remained involved in F1 as Technical Operations Director of the new Red Bull team until 2008.

After a few years away from Formula 1 and living in North Carolina, he established relationships that led him to the new project of the American team Haas in 2014, which debuted in F1 in 2016, being the team principal since its first season, and being a major influence in the construction and evolution of the team.

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Conclusion

Being the team principal of an F1 team is not an easy job. You need a great deal of experience and knowledge in the field and great skills in many areas, such as administration, management, economics, and politics.

As we have seen, there are many ways to become an F1 team principal, but none of them are easy, as you have to work your way up and earn your position.

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References

• https://us.motorsport.com/f1/news/f1-team-principals-who-are-they-and-what-do-they-do/10351168/
• https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Toto_Wolff
• https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mattia_Binotto
• https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Andreas_Seidl
• https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Otmar_Szafnauer
• https://scuderia.alphatauri.com/en/athlete/franz-tost/
• https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jost_Capito
• https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Frédéric_Vasseur