Ex-F1 boss reveals Niki Lauda decision led to abrupt sacking

Niki Lauda smiles wearing his famous red cap — Photo: © IMAGO

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Ex-F1 boss reveals Niki Lauda decision led to abrupt sacking

Niki Lauda remained involved in F1 well after his racing days concluded

Kerry Violet F1 News Editor

F1 editor and journalist covering motorsport since 2024.

Tuesday 12 May 2026 22:57

A former F1 team principal has shed light on how one immediate decision from legendary racer Niki Lauda indirectly led to his own premature sacking.

During his time in F1, Lauda picked up three drivers' championships and survived a near-fatal crash at the 1976 German Grand Prix, which took place on the infamous Nurburgring Nordschleife.

At the time of his incident, Lauda was the reigning champion, and after suffering life-changing injuries, managed to persevere and claim back another title in 1977 with Ferrari.

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The Austrian icon also won the 1984 drivers' world championship with McLaren, the team he would then choose to retire with the following year.

But even after he stopped racing in F1, Lauda's famous no-nonsense attitude found a place off the track. In 1993 he took up an advisory role at the Scuderia, and between 2001 and 2002 was the team principal of Jaguar.

And it was the hiring of Lauda for this position that stopped Otmar Szafnauer from ever officially joining the team who would eventually become Red Bull Racing.

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How F1 legend Niki Lauda caused brutal Otmar Szafnauer axe

Szafnauer is no stranger to an F1 sacking. After becoming the team principal of Alpine in 2022, the Romanian-American failed to make it to the end of the 2023 campaign.

After back-to-back DNFs for Esteban Ocon and Pierre Gasly at the British and Hungarian Grands Prix that year, Szafnauer and his ally and sporting director Alan Permane were both sacked.

Though Bruno Famin took over in the interim, this decision triggered a run of leadership changes, with Oliver Oakes replacing Famin after the 2024 summer break and current leader Flavio Briatore stepping up to take Oakes' place in May 2025.

Otmar Szafnauer has held a number of roles across the F1 paddock and was Alpine team principal from 2022-2023

On a recent episode of the High Performance Racing Podcast, Szafnauer was asked by host Jake Humphrey whether his Alpine F1 firing was the first time he had ever been sacked.

Szafnauer replied: "No. Second."

Naturally, this led Humphrey to enquire: "What was the first?"

"That's a good story," Szafnauer teased. "So I'm at British American Racing [BAR], youngest operations director in the pit lane. I was early 30s... Ford buys Stewart Grand Prix, remember? And turns it into Jaguar Racing.

"Neil Ressler's running the programme from Ford and through his relationship in IndyCar with Bobby Rahal… hires Bobby Rahal as team principal and Bobby comes over, but Bobby says, 'I'll do it. However, I have an IndyCar team that I need to run as well. So, I can't compromise that, but I'll try to do both. And it was difficult because we raced on different sides of the Atlantic. So Bobby was going back and forth, IndyCar racing over there, spending time with his IndyCar team, then back here, racing here, also spending time at the factory.

"And he thought it was a good idea to have somebody permanently in this factory, like his right-hand man that could always stay there, so he asked me through a friend if I wanted to join him as chief operating officer.

"I said, ‘Yeah, why not?’ Operations director at BAR. I'll move over. Chief operating officer had 'chief' in it. Thought that's a little bit better."

"I had my gardening leave to see out," continued Szafnauer, explaining why he couldn't simply switch teams immediately. But it was the time he was required to take out from the sport that gave Jaguar enough time to hire Lauda as team principal, prompting big changes.

"It was in August on a Friday. Malcolm Oastler's PA gets married. Linda Fischer. I'm at her wedding Friday afternoon. I get a phone call. Niki Lauda has just fired Bobby Rahal and because you were hired by Bobby, don't come in on Monday.

"So this was Friday, my last gardening leave day. I was due to start Monday, right? So there's only Saturday, Sunday. I'm getting ready to go to JAG as chief operating officer. Don't come in.

The shocking story of how Szafnauer suffered his first brutal F1 sacking before he had even started in the position then prompted Humphrey to simply respond: "And that is why they call Formula 1 the piranha club."

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Written by

Kerry Violet - F1 News Editor

Having graduated from the University of Sheffield with a 2:1 in Journalism in 2022, Kerry continued her pursuit of finding a full-time position in motorsport through work with the F1 Arcade in London, where she got to meet true fans of the sport and make a live grand prix watch party memorable for them. It was here that she confirmed her dream of combining her background in journalism and love of motorsport, going on to volunteer with the female-led platform Empoword Journalism. Having completed stints as a screen editor and sports editor, Kerry landed her first F1-specific editorial role with GPFans and has thoroughly enjoyed continuing to work closely with the sport ever since. The access GPFans offers Kerry has allowed her to interview big names such as Naomi Schiff and David Coulthard and given her experiences she could only have dreamt of as a young F1 fan.

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F1 Otmar Szafnauer Niki Lauda