From oldest to youngest, the F1 team principals on the 2024 grid are ranked.
One of the most crucial roles in Formula One is that of the team principal.
They oversee nearly every facet of the racing team, from monitoring a car’s development to guaranteeing the best outcomes on the track every weekend.
Underneath them are numerous team leaders who oversee their departments and provide reports.
With ten teams in Formula One, each of the ten gifted team leaders is competing against the other to advance their team by playing a game of mental chess.
Since none of them are the same age or have the same resume, they all have different experiences.
List of the ten F1 team principals for the 2024 grid, ordered by age:
#10 Bruno Famin, age 61.
Following the 2023 Formula One Belgian Grand Prix, Alpine fired Otmar Szafnauer as team princip
Formed Bruno Famin, the CEO overseeing engine development, as the team’s acting leader.
Famin has a lengthy history in motorsports, having begun his career as a development engineer in the Peugeot Talbot Sport.
As he advanced through the ranks of the organization, he became director of Peugeot Sport in 2012 after serving as its technical director in 2005.
He departed Peugeot Sport in 2019 to become the head of operations for the sports section of the FIA. At last, he realized.
#9. Guenther Steiner may come off as a fiery senior on a team, he is actually the second-oldest team principal in the paddock.
With a long experience in motorsports, the boss of Haas’ team began his career in 1986 as a technician for Mazda Rally Team Europe in the World Rally Championship.
In 2001, after making a name for himself in the rallying world, he joined Formula 1 and immediately took on the role of team principal for Jaguar Racing.
Steiner served as a technical director for Jaguar Racing until 2008, when Red Bull acquired the company.
He spent a number of years working with Gene Haas to establish the Haas team before making his F1 comeback in 2014 as the American team’s team principal. He is still involved with them today.
#8.Frederic Vasseur: 55 years old.
At Ferrari, Frederic Vasseur is the team principal at the moment. Following the 2022 Formula One season, he was appointed by the Italian powerhouses, taking Mattia Binotto’s place.In 1996, Vasseur joined ASM, a brand-new squad, to begin his career.
His team took home the Formula 3 Euroseries titles from 2004 to 2007 in addition to the 1998 French F3 championship.
Along with Nico Rosberg and Lewis Hamilton, he co-founded the ART Grand Prix team, which won the GP2 series in 2005 and 2006. As a team principal, he joined Renault in 2016, however he quit the team in less than a year.
After that, he joined Sauber and served as their managing director, CEO of Sauber Motorsport AG, and F1 team principal from 2017 until 2022. He eventually.
#7. Andrea Stella: 52 years old.
At the moment, Andrea Stella leads the McLaren squad as team principal. He began working in Formula One as a performance engineer at Ferrari’s test unit back in 2000.
Stella advanced through the ranks to work as a performance engineer for Michael Schumacher from 2002 to 2006 and, for the 2007 and 2008 seasons, for Kimi Raikkonen.
In 2009, he was elevated to the position of race engineer for Raikkonen, and from 2010 to 2014, he worked for Fernando Alonso.
Stella left the Italian behemoths Ferrari in 2015 as head of race operations, and in 2018 and 2019 she was elevated to performance director and racing director, respectively. At last, he was named the team principal in December 2022.
#6. Toto Wolff: 51 years old.
Since he oversees Mercedes, one of the biggest teams in the F1 paddock, Toto Wolff is one of the most well-known team principals.
In the 1990s, Wolff began his professional driving career. Prior to joining the Formula One world in 2009 as a member of the Williams board of directors, he won multiple regional championships. He was appointed executive director of the Williams squad in 2012.
But he quit the British squad in 2013 to take a position with the F1.
#5 Mike Krack: 51 years old.
At Aston Martin, Mike Krack serves as the team principal at the moment. In 1998, the Luxembourgish motorsports engineer began working as a test engineer at BMW.
After rising through the ranks from data analysis engineer to chief engineer at Sauber F1, he joined the team in 2001 and left BMW Sauber in 2008.
He joined Porsche two years later as Head of Track Engineering for the company’s WEC team after returning to BMW in 2010 as a principal engineer in the DTM division.
Re-entering BMW in 2014, he served in a variety of capacities for the business until 2022, managing both GT programs and the Formula E squad.
In 2022, he was finally revealed as Aston Martin’s team principal.
#4 Christian Horner: 50 years old.
Since Red Bull Racing was founded in 2005, Christian Horner has served as the team’s principal.
From 1991 until 1998, the 50-year-old British driver began his professional racing career. After that, he started working as a manager at F3000 until Red Bull hired him as a team principal.
He was the youngest team principal ever appointed by an F1 team at the time.
#3 Alessandro Alunni Bravi: 49 years old.
Currently serving as the Sauber F1 team spokesperson is Alessandro Alunni Bravi. He began his professional life as a legal counsel in the motorsports industry.
He held a number of key positions in teams that competed in the GP2 Series, the WRC Rally Italia Sardinia, and even Formula E from 2002 to 2022.
#2 Laurent Mekies: 46 years old.
For the 2024 Formula One season, Laurent Mekies will serve as the team principal for Scuderia AlphaTauri.
Franz Tost, the oldest team principal prior to his retirement, will be replaced by him.
In the sport, Mekies is a well-known character. In 2000, he began his career with Asiatech in Formula 3.
Later, he moved to Formula 1 with Arrows and then to Minardi. He served as a racing engineer for a number of drivers, including Justin Wilson and Mark Webber.
Minardi was elevated to the position of team chief engineer following his acquisition by Red Bull and rebranding as Toro Rosso.
After working at the FIA as safety director and subsequently F1 deputy race director, he left Toro Rosso in 2014.
#1 James Vowles: 44 years old.
In the current 2024 grid, James Vowles is the youngest team principal.
He joined the Williams F1 team in 2023 and currently serves as manager. In 2001, he began his career with the British American Racing team.
He later raced for Honda Racing, Brawn GP, and Mercedes. He was the head strategist at Brawn GP until receiving a promotion to Motorsport Strategy Director at Mercedes in 2019.
But he departed the Silver Arrows in 2023 to take a position as team principal at Williams.