OTMAR Szafnauer talks to Peter Windsor

Peter Windsor talks to Otmar Szafnauer, former Team Principal at Force India, Racing Point, Aston Martin and Alpine.
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[@8BitZ0mbie]

What a great interview. Better than any I’ve seen with a team principal.

[@emerckx53]

Best episode to date Peter! Real F1 team employee! Not just rumor or opinions!

[@mikecunningham5686]

Terrific interview and Otmar is so humble and professional in his discussions regarding seemingly unpleasant events! Both of you handled those issues so well and really appreciate the insight! Be well, be blessed and remember to keep the RPMs up and the rubber side down!!!

[@Drrolfski]

This is a great and insightful interview, one if not thé first interview I've seen with Otmar since his departure. Being one of the most effective team principals on the grid over the past decade, I really hope to see him back in F1.

[@daarom3472]

Alpine must be kicking themselves. I honestly dont get why the management let this idiot Femin destroy the team

[@shanebuchanan915]

This was a very interesting interview to watch with a brilliant insight from Otmar on both Renault / Alpine and Aston Martin. Otmar knows F1 you clearly can see that from his appraisal of the sport he puts across in some detail. The detail on GPS tracking was brilliant and informative. Thanks

[@truth4reel]

Great great guest Peter. Some of the best you've had if not the best. Keep these kind of videos if you can. Drivers, engineers/designers, team principals, mechanics, machinists...to speak on all things technical in F1 and driving technics related. Fantastic show.

[@joedutchnl3948]

Dear Peter, this was awesome! The way he opened up to you and the insight he gave into his side of the story. Great interview! Hope we can get more of these!

[@dmg8530]

Really great interview, thoroughly enjoyed this! Many thanks Peter and Otmar for giving the interview!

[@simonmiller5118]

This was the perfect opportunity for Otmar to say he got it wrong with Oscar. It takes a big man to do that. He didn't. Did he just expect Oscar to simply accept being on a perhaps, maybe, sometime half promise to get a seat at Williams after being on the sidelines for a year or did he just expect him to sit out a second year? Either way, they did not have a current contract with Oscar, which was proven. What was worse was the way Otmar publicly criticized Oscar at the time for being disloyal. That was bad form from a senior and seasoned team manager in trying to shift the blame onto a twenty-year-old driver. He got it wrong, he did not admit it and he did not apologize. Draw your own conclusions.

[@philipkozloff3832]

Two fabulous guys in fabulous and candid conversation -- what could be better?

[@peaktraveller]

Loved it. Great chat with Otmar.

[@YongJoonPaek]

such a rare frank sneak peak into the industry. thank you so much for this.

[@jaysuneakle]

Excellent interview!! Loved every minute and hope you can do this again

[@martinh4630]

Fabulous interview! '5 years to create a champion-ship winning F1 team'. Are you watching, Michael Andretti?

[@andrewhall3715]

Thank you for doing this interview. I love hearing from Otmar

[@carlgevers2557]

Listening to Otmar describing the complexity and constantly fluid nature of the game; and the constantly evolving challenges that can arise given the myriad confluential vectors involved, perfectly nails the reason F1 and golf have so much in common. If only F1 can stay out of the venus fly trap being baited currently by MBS

[@florisbackx1744]

Szafnauer straight up saying Red Bull dominance is driver dif by Max and immediately Lewis needs to be named. Just imagine Max actually being the best at moment. Also loved how he just disregarded the 'it's Adrian' narratieve.

[@harblewarble6427]

Great interview Peter! Love the insight, thanks!

[@ariebroek2404]

That was super good👍👍. Great interview and great not to get some pre cooked, press officer conditioned interview. Otmar seemed very transparent. Unmatched content pall!! Substantial

[@declanconlon4216]

Great interview- real honesty and none of usual PR and stock answers. More please.

[@9arlo9]

Great interview indeed. A lot of common sense about changing and reforming a team. If more people think and work like that less money and energy is spilled.

[@OldmanNix]

Here we go! ❤

[@brianbob7514]

Thank you

[@danielbrazil4683]

Fantastic Peter. Thank you so much.

[@pietervanbreda4360]

This was great

[@stuffilike4498]

This will be interesting to find out from Otmar about the engine deficit in the Alpine and how the car set up had to be compromised to offset it.

[@alikhatibi]

Haha you think he talkas about these stuff?

[@stuffilike4498]

Why not? His contract was terminated on July 30th, he can't be gagged forever

[@leoarc1061]

I was happy for both Otmar and Alpine when he moved to the team but, deep down, I knew that he was moving into a quicksand pit (to not use stronger words). In theory, he was undoubtedly the best candidate for the job; doing for Alpine what he had done for Force India/RP/AM. However, in terms of culture, the two teams were rather different. Renault/Alpine was a field of corporate culture mines, too tricky for no other than Cyril Abiteboul to navigate, let alone for someone who came from a smaller but a lot more efficient, running on all cylinders, different language (on the PU department as well as upper management), different culture outfit.

[@danjaz2000]

It's a nice change to have a properly well informed interviewer to get the best out of otmar. Not just a camera guy and a moron with a microphone getting a 10 second grab/comment. I could have listened to otmar for hours. I can't stand the social media garbage the teams do with their drivers and principals. It drives me nuts. I dont care that max can beat yuki in a clapped out monster truck. Forgive me im old and grumpy

[@djoetma]

There are podcasts with him. If you like this talk, you'll like those as well.

[@MarioDallaRiva]

Bravi! 👏🏻👏🏻

[@carlgevers2557]

That little glitch was great.! 'Throwing the dartboard at the dart' sounds naturally like it shld become a common figure of speech describing idiotic and incoherent planning

[@daniels.2720]

+ sometimes the so-called Educated leaders are just plain stupid...haha

[@striveresearch5379]

Brilliant

[@carlgevers2557]

Gluten a bend mein red herring. Ty again for yr endlessly interesting and intriguing programs. A question off of tonight's topic, but for future consideration; Cld you make a few comments on Ricardo Rosset's ignominious, and unusual and atypical entry both into and out of F1. I recently watched a video sadly titled 'The Wretched Racing Career of Ricardo Rosset, or some such headline hook. Interesting trajectory he had, to begin any racing at all at the relatively advanced age of 19, I thought.

[@Karma2Babylon]

Ricardo Rosset. F3000 runners up. Seriously, there’s a movie waiting to be made in that guy’s story. Ricardo trying to qualify for Monaco 1998 is one of the most excruciating and funniest events I’ve witnessed in f1. Murray Walker: I fear a lot of people are debating whether Rosset belongs in formula 1. Martin Brundle: well, it’ll be a very short debate, Murray.

[@danltiger]

It's now 2024 and I feel like we're seeing Otmar's philosophy in reverse... Alpine made changes for the sake of change, and now they're enjoying the fruits of their impatience.

[@wraitheful]

Has Otmar consulted for Andretti? This is the expertise they need, minimum.

[@daniels.2720]

Or Haas for that matter. Gunther I'm not sold on, yet it's not my money.

[@djoetma]

Hundred percent. If they could get him to be part of the team they should do it.

[@djoetma]

​@@daniels.2720Same. People don't realize how much of the work there gets done by Ayao Komatsu.

[@andrewstorm8240]

5 years!!

[@Cloxxki]

Imagine having left RBR 2 years ago. Mission out on...40 race wins, 3 titles? And now they've achieved those without you.

[@davidb9059]

😊

[@fragdude]

Agreed. I’m also interested to know his thoughts on the MGU-H. It seemed like a very expensive part of PU development & seemed like it had commercial use at the time (electrically boosted forced induction etc), but now seems deprecated. Was it just a huge waste of money while also making the engines sound less attractive?

[@Astronurd]

Depreciated.

[@tobyhall8048]

​@@Astronurd Deprecated is also a word, and it fits better there.

[@fragdude]

@@tobyhall8048 yep, deprecated was used on purpose. There was a time when there was talk of electronically boosting/accelerating forced induction systems. However, with the change in political climate, etc a lot more focus is being placed on EV tech (and possibly hybrid tech, but a companies are saying that is twice as expensive while having a limited useful lifespan to recoup expenses) & less effort is being spent on your typical ICEs

[@monkeh86]

Fascinating interview thanks Peter. Alpine senior management sound like complete clowns. I doubt they will ever see success in F1 unless they have more patience. Also interesting to know Martin Whitmarsh is basically the team principal at Aston by the sounds of it.

[@NicotineRosberg]

1 of the few American I can listen to talk F1 (I know he was born in Romania but he grew up in the US)

[@talbotd27]

Man I feel bad for Otmar. He seems like a great guy and Alpine ended up 4th in the constructors under him. Look where they are today: dead last. Seems like they made the wrong decision getting rid of him

[@scroopynooperz9051]

Otmar got a raw deal at Alpine. I wonder if the french side and the english side of the team still do everything separately and stay in different hotels 😂

[@dgomes265]

Otmar to Andretti

[@bjs7442]

I cant see Otmar getting on with Michael Andretti. They are poles apart.

[@obsidian....]

Otmar is simply "good people". I've never thought a negative thing about him.

[@brianbob7514]

F1 success just doesn’t happen at the rate corpo PR people demand

[@hamza-chaudhry]

Misc: 6:03 6:25 BWT: 33:20 Vet/Ver: 41:00

[@Phoenixv-Wino]

Penetrating interview. Am I misreading or was that real emotion in the genuflex before answering the question about why Papa Stroll did not keep him on? What emotional honesty. Thankyou Peter AND Otmar.

[@toddash42]

I don't know if there is Anyone else out there that would like to see this..... I would love to see teams free rain..... best motor you can build, best Areo you can build, whatever technology you can bring..... Let teams loose to see wat they can build ...Let's see how fast F1 can go...... As long as safety is always included

[@rupertmiller4718]

Alpine’s biggest problem is that it is French. The French have some amazing engineers, amazing scientists but it is such a political place and French companies are very political and hierarchical often at the expense of promoting on merit.

[@daniels.2720]

& Alain P. knew this best !!

[@djoetma]

BS. You realize they have several WCC's right? Their engine was the best in the Vettel days. During the engine freeze of 2007 Briatore cut away like half of the engine infrastructure in Viry. So when they had to start developing on the very complicated hybrid PU, they had trouble doing this. And they've been playing catch-up since. Honda was able to do it, but Honda is the biggest engine manufacturer in the world. Also, Renault is a single team with no engune customer meaning they are missing data. And finally, they didn't have the budget the other manufacturers had. This dispute having been lro.ised that the cap would come in way earlier than it actually did.

[@aelkat4218]

Sucks for Gasly and Ocon to get in stuck in this mess Renault bosses created.

[@ajwasp3642]

Max Backstabben

[@irieman442]

I love Otmar and this was a great video until the golf garbage. This is an F1 channel. Great, your rich kids are in a non sport to make millions of Euros. Golf is a hobby, not a sport. I have no idea why America decided these players were elite. There is no defense... the only thing stopping you from being successful is yourself. Its nothing more than minigolf on a large scale. It's even worse in the USA when they ban yard watering for private citizens, but the golf courses can spray water on the sidewalks. This elite golf garbage is the equivalent of F1 without the effort.

[@Veselinius_III]

Otmar is an O.G...the baguettes just don't get it! VERY STUPID MOVE FROM THEIR SIDE!!! If that Checo win + Stroll third place was not THE PROOF he can do it - I don't know what is!!! Shame he is out of F1...hope he returns in another "second grade" team and smashes the Alpine fractionalized commercial joke they are becoming now!!!

[@walover165]

The way he handled the Alonso and Piastri situation was horrendous. Sure, Rossi perhaps should have taken more share of the blame, but the slander campaign he then directed at Piastri was incredibly unprofessional. The fact that even at the end of the season he was gloating, "Good luck Oscar!" "If I was to choose between Oscar Piastri or Pierre Gasly...I'd take Pierre Gasly" was just ridiculous - and Piastri has made both Szafnauer and Rossi look like fools.