By Jessica Fotheringham
F1’s most memorable team principles
You’ve seen them on the pit wall, and you’ve seen many of them on Netflix or in the news, but one thing is for sure: Formula One has a history of memorable team principles.
While the drivers perform the physically challenging task of racing, team principals also serve as the face and representative of the team and make decisions on strategy, hiring, and firing.
However, just as with drivers, if team principals fail to deliver good results for the team in the constructors’ championship, they too can be sacked by team owners or board members. So, who are F1’s most memorable team principals?
Honourable names include Enzo Ferrari, Frank Williams and Monisha Kaltenborn. Both Ferrari and Williams founded F1 teams that still race today, with Ferrari claiming 16 constructors’ championships throughout its history and Williams claiming 9, according to the official Formula One page. Kaltenborn was, of course, the first female team principal after she took over at Sauber in 2012.
Any McLaren fan will know the name Ron Dennis. He is credited with taking over at McLaren in the 80’s and rebuilding a struggling team and giving Lewis Hamilton his first shot in Formula One, says Supercar Driver. In 2016, the BBC reported that Dennis’ tenure as the boss of McLaren was coming to an end, and that this was due in large part to his difficult, autocratic management style. Despite the rocky end to a very long relationship, Dennis’ time at McLaren earned 10 drivers’ titles, including Hamilton’s first title, and 7 constructors’ championships.
Current names include Mercedes’ Toto Wolff, who is the longest-serving team principal currently on the grid. Wolff is known for his strong Austrian accent and for smashing headphones during a tense Saudi Arabian Grand Prix in 2021. Wolff took up the position of Executive Director at the Mercedes-AMG Petronas F1 Team in 2013, and under his leadership, the team has achieved 8 Formula One constructors’ championships, according to Mercedes. Wolff’s success as a team principal shone through in the team’s long relationship with Hamilton, who holds the record for the number of starts with the same constructor and world titles with the same team. A driver as talented as Hamilton is sure to have stayed with Mercedes and Wolff due to the team’s and leadership’s dynamics.
Adrian Newey is set to make his team principal debut this year at Aston Martin. Despite having no prior experience as a team principal, Newey is sure to become one of the most memorable team principals as an already reputable design legend. According to the BBC, Newey’s design helped Red Bull achieve a record-breaking championship season, and his design often forms trends that other teams follow.
Thanks to Netflix and the popular F1 show ‘Drive to Survive’, team principals have become, in a sense, actors, with their funny soundbites and moments. Guenther Steiner and Cyril Abiteboul are arguably the two personalities most known for their feisty exchanges with other team principals and their angry outbursts.
Steiner was often shown having desperate phone conversations with Gene Haas, especially after a 2019 collision between his two drivers, Magnussen and Grosjean. It was these funny moments that have no doubt helped the success of his live show and book. Whether or not Steiner ever returns to the pit wall, it is certain that he will always have a fan base because of his comical personality.
Abiteboul will always be remembered for his close but tense relationship with Daniel Ricciardo. Abiteboul, especially, will be the last person to forget their relationship considering he honoured a wager about podium finishes to Ricciardo and got a tattoo in respect to the Australian driver’s P3 podium finish. Having joined Renault in 2014 as Managing Director, Abiteboul departed in 2020 and is now working with Hyundai.
These names are only a few of many Formula One team principals that will go down in history for memorable wins, losses, arguments and scandals, and the success of the sport is no doubt to produce many more.
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