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The team principal is one of the most important positions in F1. They supervise almost every aspect of the racing team, from looking over the development of a car to ensuring the best results on the track weekend in and weekend out. They have many team heads underneath them who manage their respective departments and report back.
Since F1 has 10 teams, there are 10 talented team principals playing mental chess in order to beat each other and push their team forward. When it comes to experience, all of them are different since they are not of the same age or have the same CV.
List of all 10 F1 team principals on the 2024 grid ranked from oldest to youngest
#10 Bruno Famin: 61 years old
After Alpine removed Otmar Szafnauer from the team principal role after the 2023 F1 Belgian GP, they appointed the CEO in charge of engine development, Bruno Famin, as the interim team principal at the French team.
Famin has a long career in motorsports, as he started his journey in the Peugeot Talbot Sport as a development engineer. He went up the ladder in the company, ending up as a technical director of Peugeot Sport in 2005 and director of the same by 2012.
In 2019, he left Peugeot Sport and joined the FIA as director of operations for the sports branch. Finally, he came to Alpine in February 2022, after which he became the interim team principal. There have been reports that the French team will not be finding a permanent team principal, giving the reigns of the team to Famin for the 2024 F1 season.
#9 Guenther Steiner: 58 years old
Guenther Steiner might have the persona of a hot-headed senior on a team, but he is the second-oldest team principal in the paddock. Haas' team boss has a long history in motorsports, starting his career as a mechanic in the World Rally Championship for Mazda Rally Team Europe in 1986. After establishing himself in the world of rallying, he entered Formula 1 and started directly as a team principal for Jaguar Racing in 2001.
After Jaguar Racing was purchased by Red Bull, Steiner worked as a technical director until 2008. After several years where he helped create the Haas team with Gene Haas, he finally returned to F1 as the team principal of the American team in 2014 and is still active with them today.
#8 Frederic Vasseur: 55 years old
Frederic Vasseur is the current team principal at Ferrari. He was appointed by the Italian giants after the 2022 F1 season, where he replaced Mattia Binotto.
Vasseur started his career by finding a brand new team, ASM, in 1996. His team won the French F3 championship in 1998 and the Formula 3 Euroseries championships from 2004 to 2007. He co-founded the ART Grand Prix team that won the GP2 series with Nico Rosberg in 2005 and Lewis Hamilton in 2006.
He joined Renault in 2016 as a team principal, but left the team just after a year. He then joined the Sauber and remained as the managing director, CEO of Sauber Motorsport AG, and team principal of their F1 team from 2017 to 2022, before ending up as a Ferrari team principal.
#7 Andrea Stella: 52 years old
Andrea Stella is currently the team principal at the McLaren team. He started his career in F1 back in 2000 as a performance engineer at Ferrari's test team. Stella moved up the ranks to become a performance engineer for Michael Schumacher from 2002 to 2006, and then for Kimi Raikkonen for the 2007 and 2008 seasons. He was promoted to race engineer for Raikkonen in 2009 and then for Fernando Alonso from 2010 to 2014.
After a long stint at Ferrari, Stella left the Italian giants and moved to McLaren in 2015 as head of race operations, further being promoted to performance director in 2018 and racing director in 2019. Finally, in December 2022, he was announced as the team principal.
#6 Toto Wolff: 51 years old
Toto Wolff is one of the most famous team principals in the F1 paddock since he manages one of the biggest teams, Mercedes. Wolff started his professional career as a racing driver in the 1990s. He won several regional championships before entering the world of F1 in 2009 as a member of board of directors at Williams.
In 2012, he was named the executive director of the Williams team. However, in 2013, he left the British team to become the executive director of Mercedes.
#5 Mike Krack: 51 years old
Mike Krack is currently the team principal at Aston Martin. The Luxembourgish motorsports engineer started his career at BMW in 1998 as a test engineer. He then joined Sauber F1 in 2001, moving up the ranks from data analysis engineer to chief engineer, and left BMW Sauber in 2008.
In 2010, he returned to BMW as a chief engineer in their DTM department and moved to Porsche after two years, where he was given the role of Head of Track Engineering in the company's WEC team. He rejoined BMW in 2014 and worked through several roles for the company till 2022, from overseeing the Formula E team to GT programs. Finally, he was announced as the team principal at Aston Martin in 2022.
#4 Christian Horner: 50 years old
Christian Horner has been the team principal of Red Bull Racing ever since the team was created back in 2005. The 50-year-old Brit started his career as a racing driver from 1991 to 1998. From there, he entered the managerial role in F3000 before being appointed by Red Bull as a team principal. At the time, he was the youngest team principal ever to be appointed by an F1 team.
#3 Alessandro Alunni Bravi: 49 years old
Alessandro Alunni Bravi is currently the team representative for the Sauber F1 team. He started his career as a legal counsel in the world of sports, including motorsports. From 2002–2022, he held several senior positions in teams competing in the WRC Rally Italia Sardinia, the GP2 Series, and even Formula E.
In July 2017, Bravi was appointed as a board member of the Sauber Group before becoming the managing director of the group. Finally, in 2023, he became the team representative of Alfa Romeo (now known as Stake F1 Team Kick Sauber).
#2 Laurent Mekies: 46 years old
Laurent Mekies will be the team principal at Scuderia AlphaTauri for the 2024 F1 season. He will replace Franz Tost, who used to be the oldest team principal before his retirement. Mekies is a well-known figure in the sport. He started his career by joining Asiatech in F3 in 2000, before shifting to F1 with Arrows and then to Minardi in the following years. He worked as a race engineer for drivers like Mark Webber, Justin Wilson, and more.
After Minardi was acquired by Red Bull and was named Toro Rosso, he was promoted to the team's chief engineer. He stayed with Toro Rosso from 2005 to 2014, after which he worked at the FIA as safety director and then F1 deputy race director. He then moved to Ferrari in 2018 as a sporting director, eventually being promoted as a deputy team principal and racing director. On July 2023, it was announced that Mekies would leave Ferrari.
#1 James Vowles: 44 years old
James Vowles is the youngest team principal in the current 2024 grid. He manages the Williams F1 team and has been working there since 2023. His career started with the British American Racing team in 2001, which transitioned to Honda Racing, Brawn GP, and eventually Mercedes.
At Brawn GP, he was the chief strategist, after which his next promotion came in 2019, when he was made the Motorsport Strategy Director at Mercedes. In 2023, however, he left the Silver Arrows and became the team principal at Williams.
