There may have been no movement on the Formula 1 driver market between last year and the coming 2024 F1 season, but the same isn’t true among the team principals.
The past two years have seen an unusually high rate of change at the top of many F1 teams. But not everywhere.Consider the example of two Formula 1 teams which had disappointing seasons last year and confirmed very different plans for their leadership in the past week.
Guenther Steiner, previously one of the longest-serving current team principals, was shown the door by Haas after the team slumped to last place in ther constructors championship.
However Toto Wolff, one of only two remaining team principals who’d been in position for longer than Steiner, will remain in charge at Mercedes for at least another three years. Their championship dominating days may be behind them, and last season was their first without a victory since 2011, but Wolff’s fellow co-owners backed him to return them to their glory days.
Mercedes are bucking the trend Haas followed. The rate of turnover among F1 team principals has been remarkably high lately. Aside from Mercedes, Red Bull is the only other team which hasn’t appointed a new boss since the start of the 2022 season. Here’s a look at the last four years:
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What has driven these changed? It hasn’t always been a matter of a principal being replaced because a team has under-performed.
Several teams have gone through changes in ownership and identity which have led to new names at the top. Mike Krack was installed to lead Aston Martin in January 2022 and, remarkably, is now the third longest-running team principal. Similarly, after Dorilton bought Williams they briefly installed Jost Capito in charge before luring James Vowles from Mercedes to serve as a long-term replacement.
In another case the impending arrival of a new competitor has already caused changes. Sauber’s tie-up with Audi, due to begin in 2026, convinced Andreas Seidl to jump ship from McLaren to join them as Group CEO. McLaren promoted Andrea Stella in his place and can only have been pleased at how smoothly 2023 went once they got the MCL60 fully sorted.
Another change at Sauber (formerly Alfa Romeo) came about as a result of a performance-related replacement elsewhere. Ferrari’s failure to capitalise on their promising start to the 2022 led to Mattia Binotto’s exit, and Frederic Vasseur was hired from Alfa Romeo in his place.
Only one team has changed principals more frequently than Ferrari of late – Alpine. Otmar Szafnauer was at his previous team for more than a decade but the Enstone-based team dispensed with his services less than a year and a half after hiring him.
While stability at the top is no guarantee of success, it is surely no coincidence that F1’s two best performing teams of the V6 hybrid era have had the same person in charge throughout that time, even through their fallow periods. The question now is which of their rivals is best-placed to emulate that stability.
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Formula 1
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- Red Bull’s star designer Newey to leave team – reports
Red Andy (@red-andy)
17th January 2024, 8:29
While the high turnover of team principals is unusual, the probable reason it is happening now is to provide a period of stability at the top ahead of the regulation changes coming for 2026. Mercedes and Red Bull are confident enough in their leadership that they don’t feel the need to change before then.
Tristan
17th January 2024, 10:10
McLaren’s an interesting case. I’d call Brown the boss even if not the principal in title. He seemingly performs those duties.
I was recently wondering what F1 would look like if Horner and Wolff’s left. I could see Vowles being a long term appointment depending on who Williams owners end up being.
I think HAAS and AlphaTauri are not long for this world. The look of F1 could change drastically very quickly if just a few key characters left the game.
Pinak Ghosh (@pinakghosh)
17th January 2024, 8:29
The picture with the article is one for the hall of fame.
Paul (@frankjaeger)
17th January 2024, 9:17
circa 21st century; a rare picture of Mr Wolff and Mr Horner happy in each others company
RH
17th January 2024, 10:11
Toto owns part of the team so I guess him being a team boss is just merely an additional responsibility taken on by him.
Horner is probably the more “normal” team boss.
amped
17th January 2024, 12:17
Yup, Red Bull chose to appoint CH as Team Principal all them years ago.
Toto bought his role as Team Principal at Mercedes
Frank
17th January 2024, 11:26
Are the numbers in the headline a fair representation of reality?
Since 2020, only Alpine and Williams have seen regular changes at the head.
– AT and Haas only now have their very first change of boss. One of which is a retirement.
– AR/Sauber had to replace Vasseur, who headed to Ferrari. I seem to remember if it was the same story at Aston Martin. And McLaren had to replace Seidl after he left for Audi.
Counting from 2020, that leaves 4 teams who have sacked a principal following bad results. That is not a shocking statistic.
Stephen H
17th January 2024, 12:12
Begs the question: Is there more job security being an F1 Team Boss or a Premier League football manager ??
Michael (@freelittlebirds)
17th January 2024, 14:02
Ha-ha – good one!
bernasaurus (@bernasaurus)
18th January 2024, 10:28
It’s a great question. I associate F1 Team bosses as a far more long term gig, but perhaps not (unless the job is Renualt/Lotus/Alpine). I’m not sure any PL manager has just left at the end of their contract. 5 year deal, leaves 1st July 5 years later. Football managers are a weird carousel where I’m not exactly sure what anyone is expecting.
Franz Tost probably deserves a big sticker or trophy to be the first person in history to just complete their contract. Maybe Lewis can give it to him, and then ask him ‘who are you?’
David BR (@david-br)
18th January 2024, 16:49
Great question as @bernasaurus says. Formula 1 team bosses seem more like corporate execs, coordinating a lot of different personnel and resources, managing two drivers, with many of the football boss roles (like tactics) distributed to other key figures. And they don’t really get to tell drivers how to drive – or shouldn’t be. Football team managers have to manage huge squads (30+), select teams and tactics for each match and intervene a lot during actual play. They may also have a big role in training. At the same time, team performance is also down to how much boards and owners are willing to spend, the influence of a ‘football director’, coaching staff etc. I think overall, though, football managers tend to get sacked because they’ve ‘lost the dressing room’, in other words players have lost confidence in the manager’s selections and tactics and are no longer motivated. You can usually tell when that’s happened from what happens on the pitch. F1 bosses are probably more secure and maybe tend to get sacked in the hope that a change will resolve deeper organizational problems within the team (Ferrari?).
Dusty
17th January 2024, 16:33
Szafnauer has been dropped twice in this period, very impressive.
Mayrton
18th January 2024, 8:03
Ironically it are the two who the sport could do without. Kind of sends the wrong message to future generations.
MichaelN
18th January 2024, 12:42
Why not? They’re the two best funded teams and should do well regardless of who is in charge. Same with Ferrari, who is also in their league, and which prior to 2021 was the best performing team non-Mercedes team in terms of wins during the V6 era. It was the big miss on hiring Binotto after Marchionne’s unfortunate passing that put them on the back foot.
Horner achieved pretty much nothing of note from 2014 through 2020, picking up a win or two in some seasons but basically being stuck, with their huge budget keeping them ahead of the midfield. The best thing he did was convince the other teams to agree to the engine freeze and equalization scheme. It has no place in F1, but he managed to pull the wool over everyone’s eyes, so props to him. It allowed his team to come back in the game.
Also important to note when comparing teams that the budget cap only covers a part of the team’s expenses. There is still a huge part of the budget that is not capped, and Red Bull and Mercedes can still outspend everyone else by some margin.