F1 News

szafnauer collaborates on project that wants eleventh team on f1 grid

Former F1 team principal involved in possible creation of new F1 team

30 July at 18:00
2
  • Corwin Kunst

Otmar Szafnauer left as Alpine's team principal during the summer break last year and is currently on gardening leave. Yet he is not sitting still. The 59-year-old Romanian-American is involved in a US F1 project. It is being investigated whether they could eventually make an entry into the king class of motorsport as the 11th team.

Szafnauer reveals this in the podcast James Allen on F1 this week. "I've been working with some organisations in North America that have the funding to start an 11th team. It's not Andretti. Now we're just putting some of those building blocks in place to make sure that we have everything that's required in order to be successful to both start a team, but also get an entry." That is also the reason why Andretti got zero response last year.

Szafnauer does not rule out F1 return

Szafnauer knows what is needed for running an F1 team, having been involved with Honda and Racing Point for many years together with his time at Alpine. When his period of gardening leave is over, Szafnauer may well get to work at one of the current teams. It is not like he has a contract with any of the parties involved in the US project mentioned above.

"I'm a competitor and the one thing that I like more than anything is the competition. So, to come back in a role where I can't influence how well the team is competing, I don't think I'd be interested. If it was a role where I could help develop, build, attract the right people to improve a team's competitiveness, I'd be interested."