F1 drivers but they are team principals: How Lewis Hamilton & Co would fare on the pitwall

Max Verstappen, Lewis Hamilton and Fernando Alonso are pictured in a composite next to each other — Photo: © IMAGO

F1 Off the Track

F1 drivers but they are team principals: How Lewis Hamilton & Co would fare on the pitwall

How would F1's top stars work out as team principals?

Dan Ripley Global Editor

Professional F1 journalist and analyst

Saturday 15 November 2025 12:56

So it looks like Max Verstappen is already getting bored as an F1 world champion - a four-time one at that.

Why? Well put aside his Red Bull car is a glorified wheelie bin with an engine (trust me, -insert your favourite Red Bull No. 2 driver here- is really not as bad as his results have suggested) the flying Dutchman has already got his team boss hat on.

With all the enthusiasm as if he is playing F1 Manager (the awful, but yet still amazing, 1999 game), Verstappen is already thinking how he would change the McLaren drivers' lineup as if he is pitching for a job to replace Andrea Stella or Zak Brown.

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He said: "When you have the two best drivers in a team, they’re always going to get in each other’s way. And, in the end, even if the team is dominant, it will end up splitting up and having problems.

"If I were a team principal, I would never take that risk. Moreover, it’s an even more untenable situation when you’re fighting for the championship. And I think we’re going to see that very soon in F1, given the current scenario.”

So even when Max does step out the cockpit, is he already looking to just moving his F1 life to the pitwall? Some drivers have been excellent helping run a team like Sir Jackie Stewart. Others less so like 'poor Alain Prost'.

But how would F1's top drivers get on becoming team principals? Well, maybe not as well as we think - but have your say at the bottom of this article with our GPFans poll.

Max Verstappen

We've mentioned him so let's start with him. Verstappen would be the F1 equivalent of Glenn Hoddle. Amazing in play, the brains to know how it can work as a team boss... but the man management skills?

Verstappen is likely to watch one (if not both) of his two race pilots fail, quizzically ask him why he can't race as fast as him, before demoralising his driver by climbing back into an F1 car and effortlessly going faster during a test session (in the wet) in classic Hoddle style.

On the plus side, Verstappen is also likely to bat for his drivers against the FIA no matter what they have done wrong. But, the reason they have probably made a mistake in the first place is because Verstappen has mentally beaten them into a pulp.

END RESULT: Max Verstappen runs his own F1 team with him as the sole driver and even at the age of 63 he wins the world championship.

Lewis Hamilton

The current Ferrari star is the dream boss. Day one, team uniform gets ditched and anyone can arrive in what they want and wear what they want throughout the weekend. The British star's attention to his staff and their development only increases his popularity. Morale shoots up.

However, as like any utopia - this good will is abused. His team is quick but fragile as mechanical failures & DNFs exponentially increase. Turns out an engineer has become too lax on the job and the final straw comes when said engineer turns up before qualifying wearing his onesie and oversized Homer Simpson slippers (I'm not projecting... honest).

Like Verstappen, he too defends his team to the end, but his downbeat nature once results take a turn for the worse leads to inconsistent performances. Post-2021 Mercedes basically.

END RESULT: Always quick but lack consistency. The cars' livery are always among the best in the pit-lane though.

Fernando Alonso

Fernando Alonso develops a problem. He cannot retire from F1. Trying to do so in 2018 scarred him for life and so he will be driving in F1 until the very end under Team Alonso F1.

Of course he is the lead driver and somehow even at 84-years-old he is still pumping in respectable lap times while complaining about those pesky kids around him on the grid (and blaming them for incidents) like he is some sort of Scooby Doo villain - or a British TV sitcom character.

But it's chaos inside the team, Alonso has burned his bridges with Ferrari, Mercedes, Renault and Honda in regards to supplying power units after branding them all 'GP2 engines' for being way slower than the leading team on the grid - matching his career summary of being in the right place at the wrong time.

END RESULT: Alonso gives up the modern world and simply gets his team to copy his R25 championship winning car from 2005, which somehow escapes scrutiny and powers him to his third world title in the year 2066.

A spygate case opens up eventually and of course in true nonsensical default FIA fashion results in a random drive-through penalty for Rally legend Carlos Sainz's grandson and F1 star Carlos Sainz's son Carlos Sainz. Go figure.

Fernando Alonso on the phone to yet another engine supplier (probably)

Charles Leclerc

F1's nearly man gets it altogether as team boss. He has the man-management skills to deal with everyone in his team, an eye for talent, great with the media and as Ferrari leader has worked out that his dog Leo III is a significant upgrade as senior strategist.

But Leclerc has a problem he cannot change, his luck. Despite breaking the team record for most consecutive poles with 20 - his drivers win none of them as one of Max Verstappen's children ends up taking victory half of the time due to some sort of unfortunate incident out of Leclerc's hands.

Ferrari of course can't see beyond this and blame the Monegasque for failing to deliver their first title since 2008 (yep, that record continues well into the future.)

END RESULT: Given Ferrari have burned through all the team principals available to them, Leclerc stays on - and it nearly pays off. Ferrari are on course to win their first championship double since 2004 but a sinkhole opens up on the final lap before the finish line as Ferrari lead a one-two.

The race is red flagged and Ferrari are awarded their one-two win. However a rule change at the start of they year means red flagged races are only awarded half-points and as a result they are pipped to both titles by a point.

Lando Norris

Despite the incident being well over 20 years ago Lando Norris is still being booed as team boss following his innocent enough role in being allowed to overtake team-mate Oscar Piastri at the Italian GP following a bodged pit-stop.

So Norris's team has an image problem of being F1's villains. Wisely, he seeks to remedy this by signing idol and motorsport legend Valentino 'every race is a home race' Rossi.

This works a charm as Rossi does Rossi things by winning against the odds, and turns around the image of the team. Everything's coming up ~~Millhouse~~ Lando.

END RESULT: Norris makes a critical error in thinking that Rossi's success is down to MotoGP being better than F1 in every way. A move to make a two-wheel car with one huge tyre at the front and back stretching the width of the car is a disaster.

The one crumb of comfort is the crowd boos turn to laughter, hang on - is that actually worse?

Written by

Dan Ripley - Global Editor

I've been a massive F1 fan since the mid 1990s and continue to study the history of the sport long before that. As an experienced motor sport reporter covering F1, MotoGP and the LeMans 24 Hour race, being part of GPFans has allowed me to work with a diverse team with all sorts of different backgrounds in watching the sport and given me a greater appreciation of F1.

View full biography

F1 Max Verstappen Lewis Hamilton Lando Norris Charles Leclerc Fernando Alonso