F1 boss forced to pay out MILLIONS to employees

Otmar Szafnauer, Zak Brown and Guenther Steiner all sit beside each other in press conference — Photo: © IMAGO

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F1 boss forced to pay out MILLIONS to employees

Otmar Szafnauer has revealed that he had to dip into his own pocket whilst in charge at Force India

Sheona Mountford F1 Journalist

Motorsport journalist working in F1 since 2024.

Tuesday 8 October 2024 11:57

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Former Formula 1 boss Otmar Szafnauer has revealed that he was forced to fork out millions to pay his employees after his team experienced financial difficulties.

The former Alpine and Racing Point/Force India team principal has had to contend with various headaches during his period in leadership, particularly during his time at the latter.

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Force India endured a public demise in 2018 after financial struggles caused the team to look for a buyer to rescue its season.

Eventually, a consortium backed by Lawrence Stroll stepped in with the team becoming Racing Point, but Szafnauer has recently revealed how dire the situation was before the buyout.

Force India was transformed into Racing Point after being bought by Lawrence Stroll

Otmar Szafnauer was axed from F1 by Alpine in 2023

Otmar Szafnauer paid employees salaries

Speaking on the High Performance podcast, the 60-year-old revealed that he had to pay his employees salaries, not once but twice during their difficulties after being quizzed on the matter.

“It was in the millions,” Szafnauer explained. “I paid it with the help of my partner at Soft Pauer.

“We had money in the business. I had my own money and I knew the salaries were not going to get paid, and I knew how difficult that is for people. Some people live paycheck to paycheck, and I understand it.

“We had to pay the salaries, and the Formula 1 money was coming in five days’ time."

Otmar Szafnauer paid Force India employee salaries

Szafnauer continued: “So I could have waited, not paid on Friday, or paid with my own money and then waited until Wednesday to get that money back from when the Formula 1 money came,"

“In between that Friday and the Wednesday, there’s a huge risk of, well, what if that money doesn’t come? Or what if that money does come, and somebody else knocks on the door and says, ‘Hey, you owe me $2 million, and unless you give me this money, I’m shutting you down.”

“So that was five, six, seven days of, ‘What if?'”

Max Verstappen Lando Norris Daniel Ricciardo Alpine Lawrence Stroll Otmar Szafnauer