Another team principal gone: only Wolff and Horner still remain!

Aston Martin has a new man running the show now. Andy Cowell has replaced Mike Krack as Aston Martins team principal. Krack will remain with Aston Martin only in a different position. With this change, that makes eight teams who have made principal changes since the start of the 2022 Formula 1 season. The only two bosses that have remained the same are Christian Horner and Toto Wolff.

Over the past two years, many F1 teams have made big changes in terms of management. For example, Ferrari brought in Frederic Vasseur after Mattia Binotto left. Vasseur's move to Ferrari then left a gap at Alfa Romeo. Filling in at Vasseur's old seat at Alfa Romeo was Andreas Seidl, who left McLaren to focus on the Audi project at Alfa Romeo, and now Sauber, however, he was also let go by the Germans. Andrea Stella joined McLaren as team principal after Seidl left, and former Red Bull sporting director Jonathan Wheatley replaced him at Audi, sharing responsibilities with COO and CTO Mattia Binotto.

Another team that has made a big change was Alpine. Otmar Szafnauer was removed from his role as team principal after a year and a half. Bruno Famin held down the role for a short while on an interim basis until Oliver Oakes took over.

Furthermore, Haas split from Guenther Steiner, and Ayao Komatsu joined in as his replacement. At Racing Bulls, Laurent Mekies left Ferrari to replace Franz Tost. James Vowles replaced Jost Capito at Williams.

This means that only two team bosses have remained in their positions since 2022: Toto Wolff at Mercedes and Christian Horner at Red Bull Racing. These two have managed to not find themselves on the chopping block. While Horner was investigated for transgressive behaviour, he was cleared, and after some internal conflict, things have settled within Red Bull.

This article was written in collaboration with Cas van de Kleut.

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