Ex-F1 team boss offers critical response to ‘football manager’ style decisions

Otmar Szafnauer believes F1 team decision-makers need to show greater patience and stop setting unrealistic expectations for success.

Szafnauer, who was team boss of Alpine for 2022 and the first half of 2023, parted ways with the operation in the middle of the ’23 season, having had a difference in opinion with Renault CEO Luca de Meo on the timeline back to success for the Enstone-based squad.

Otmar Szafnauer: You can’t treat F1 teams like football squads

Szafnauer’s short stint in charge came after he had replaced former executive director Marcin Budkowski who himself had replaced former team boss Cyril Abiteboul; Abiteboul left after 2020, with Budkowski leaving after the ’21 season.

After Szafnauer’s departure, Bruno Famin took over as team boss for just under a year before Oli Oakes was brought in as a new name from Formula 2. Oakes recently resigned from the position of team principal, citing personal reasons, meaning Alpine is, once again, on the hunt for a new team boss.

Not only that, but Alpine is facing an uncertain period of time as De Meo is set to vacate his position as Renault CEO in mid-July. His replacement is yet to be confirmed.

Over the last five years, Szafnauer’s tenure saw him use his experience from Force India and Racing Point to guide Alpine to a fourth-place finish in 2022, while Esteban Ocon scored a podium finish in Azerbaijan in early ’23.

Szafnauer had been open about needing time to make the changes to the team he felt were needed to turn Enstone into a world-championship contending team, but the fundamental disagreement between he and De Meo on this timeline meant a parting of the ways was inevitable.

Two years on, it’s not just Alpine making headlines over the role of its team boss, as speculation has suggested Ferrari is considering replacing Fred Vasseur for next season as the Scuderia’s performance hasn’t matched what it managed in 2024.

Such knee-jerk reactions, and the expectation that success can be created instantly, are indicative of a change of ethos from how F1 teams used to be owned and managed, Szafnauer believes, as he explained in an exclusive interview with PlanetF1.com.

“That happened with me, for sure,” he said, when asked if F1 team bosses are now treated similarly to the revolving door approach of football clubs with their managers when success isn’t immediate.

“The people above me had no idea how long it takes. They had no idea that you actually need good people from within the industry.

“You can hire good people from outside the industry, but then it takes them time to learn the industry and actually have an impact on performance.

“So when your bosses don’t realise that, then you get exactly what happened to me.

“In the past, the bosses were actually the team owners, and they had a deep understanding of Formula 1 and racing. Eddie Jordan came from F3000 and raced himself, and started Jordan Grand Prix.

“Ron Dennis, same thing, he came from the lower formulas and was a founder of McLaren; Patrick Head and Frank Williams, same thing.

“Those bosses, back in the day, who owned the teams also understood racing very well and the environment that they were in. So they didn’t have unrealistic expectations.

“The new bosses just coming in [today], they may have unrealistic expectations because they didn’t grow up in the sport. When you look at it as a sport instead of a technology development organisation, which is really what it is, then you start making football-like decisions.

“Football teams, you can change five starting players, and have a whole different team, whole different culture, whole different everything. You can’t do that in Formula 1, it takes time.

“If you don’t understand the business, you look at football and say, ‘Hey, how come they can do it in a year?’ And then you end up changing it up prematurely. It shouldn’t be that way.

“I tell people that F1 is not a sport. Out of the average team of 1000 employees, two of them are sportsmen; 998 of them are technicians, mechanics, engineers, aerodynamicists, accountants, marketing and commercial people. Two are sportsmen. Maybe four if you have a reserve driver and a simulator driver.

“It’s not a sport, it’s a technology development race.”

Szafnauer’s successor, Bruno Famin, picked up the baton of momentum the Romanian-American had created, with Pierre Gasly scoring another podium with third at Zandvoort just weeks after Szafnauer had left.

With 120 points, and sixth place overall, in 2023, Alpine finished in the same position in ’24 but with almost half the points – 65 in total.

Famin himself was moved onto a “transformation project” at Viry-Chatillion as Renault pulled the plug on its F1 engine programme, instead turning to a customer supply deal with Mercedes from 2026.

On 11 points and in last place as the F1 2025 season approaches the halfway point of the season, it’s evident the changes made since Szafnauer’s departure haven’t translated into short-term success, creating a sense of vindication in how things have played out.

“I knew it wasn’t me. It’s just the rest of the world, right?” Szafnauer said.

“It all depends on how you spin things, but I did nothing wrong at Alpine, just the opposite.

“I started recruiting good people. I made really good inroads in recruiting; not people that I had to replace there, but areas that were absolutely lacking there.

“They had no aero performance group when I got there. At a big team, they had zero. Vehicle performance wasn’t good enough, and their understanding of tyres wasn’t good enough.

“I was working on getting better tyre engineers. They had smart people working on tyres. But they were recent graduates from Cambridge, so one of the best engineering universities in England, so they’re super smart, but no real-world experience on tyres, and that’s what you needed.

“You need that experience. So I was making headway and recruiting in all the right areas, and not having to replace people, but looking at the organisation and saying they’re really lacking here.

“Then they decided that wasn’t happening fast enough, or whatever the other reasons that they had, made the change, and, less than a year later, they made another change.”

What might Alpine do next?

Alpine’s hunt for a new team boss is ongoing, with Flavio Briatore (whose own future is not assured as his role has been as executive advisor to the departing De Meo) attempting to find Oakes’ replacement.

A leading contender, PlanetF1.com exclusively revealed recently, is Enstone veteran Steve Nielsen. However, it’s understood Nielsen faces some scrutiny to pass the required fit and proper person’s test the FIA requires for all senior team management roles, while the team may also face a lengthy wait to secure his services.

With Nielsen employed as an F1 consultant, it’s understood Alpine’s rival teams would insist he serve at least six months gardening leave before he could start at Enstone.

Lengthy gardening leave periods for employees jumping teams or from F1/FIA back into competitive roles are de rigeur, but have made the task of finding a new team boss considerably more difficult for Alpine as it will likely have to wait for any external hires to serve these requirements.

Szafnauer said this aspect of strengthening a team has changed in recent years.

“Teams are now signing key people up to three-year contracts,” he said.

“If you’re starting a new team, wanting to recruit better people, or wanting to recruit in areas where you’re lacking from other teams that aren’t lacking in those areas, and they have a big impact on performance, you can’t do it like you used to be able to do it.

“Everyone’s got either a year to a year and a half gardening leave, usually a year.

“But the other thing they have is three-year contracts.

“So if you find somebody, or you know somebody that you want to recruit, they could be in year one of their three-year contract, and you’ve got to wait another two years. On average, you’re waiting a year and a half because you got them right in the middle.

“But that’s why it takes so long to start attracting the people that you need for your organisation to make it better because, often, you have to wait. What that does is it locks in the strategic advantage for those teams that have the better people.”

Szafnauer himself served his gardening leave upon splitting from Alpine but is a free agent once again as he seeks a new F1 challenge; he is also in the early stages of pulling a prospective 12th team together for a serious entry bid, having secured investment and the backing of a car manufacturer.

Would a return to Alpine tempt Szafnauer, if the Enstone squad did swallow its pride and decide his availability and proven expertise is just what it requires?

“I’ve been around the sport now, probably amongst the longest [of anyone],” he said.

“I signed my contract with Adrian [Reynard] in 1997, I started in ’98, so Flavio was around then.

“When I first met Flavio, he was selling engines to British American Racing in our first year, and we bought SuperTec, so I know him. I worked with him.

“I definitely could work with Flavio, I have zero issues with him. He knows the sport, he’s been around a long time, and he’s won a couple of World Championships. You can’t argue with that.”

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