F1 team principals: How long has each team boss been in charge?
Toto Wolff is now the longest-serving current team principal in the Formula 1 paddock.
There will be 11 team principals on the grid in the 2026 season, with the grid having expanded for the first time in a decade.
There has been a significant turnover of Formula 1 team principals in recent seasons, with only a couple having lasted longer than three years in their current roles. So, let’s take a look at all of Formula 1’s team bosses, and how long they have each held their current posts.
F1 team principals: How long has each one been in post?
Statistics correct as of 2025 Abu Dhabi Grand Prix
Mercedes – Toto Wolff
Date of appointment: January 2013
Races with the team: 272
Wins: 121
Drivers’ Championships: 7
Constructors’ Championships: 8
Having made his entrance into Formula 1 as a co-owner of the Williams team, Wolff went on to buy a stake in the Mercedes outfit too. He left Williams in January of 2013, albeit remaining a co-owner at the time, to take over as executive director at Mercedes.
Building on the foundations laid by Ross Brawn, Wolff oversaw Mercedes’ rampage through the sport as they claimed eight Constructors’ Championships in a row between 2014-2021, plus seven consecutive Drivers’ Championships from 2014-2020. It was a streak of the likes Formula 1 had not seen before.
Ferrari – Frederic Vasseur
Date of appointment: December 2022
Races with the team: 71
Wins: 6
Drivers’ Championships: 0
Constructors’ Championships: 0
Onto the more recent appointments now which started with Vasseur, who bid farewell to Alfa Romeo to take over as Ferrari principal, Mattia Binotto announcing that he would resign from the role at the end of 2022.
A constant in the world of Formula 1 since 2016, Vasseur’s appointment makes him Ferrari’s first non-Italian team boss since 2007, at which time Vasseur’s fellow Frenchman Jean Todt was preparing to hand over the reins to Stefano Domenicali.
In July 2025, Vasseur signed a multi-year contract extension to continue his role at Ferrari.
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McLaren – Andrea Stella
Date of appointment: December 2022
Races with the team: 71
Wins: 21
Drivers’ Championships: 1
Constructors’ Championships: 2
After it was revealed that Andreas Seidl would become the new CEO of Sauber, McLaren quickly confirmed the promotion of Stella from racing director to team principal.
It marked the first time that Stella had held a team principal role in Formula 1, and oversaw McLaren’s first Constructors’ Championship in 26 years when they claimed the 2024 title.
That was followed up by Stella’s first ever title double as team principal in 2025, with Lando Norris winning the Drivers’ crown and McLaren dominating to take the Constructors’ title with seven races to spare.
Williams – James Vowles
Date of appointment: January 2023
Races with the team: 71
Wins: 0
Drivers’ Championships: 0
Constructors’ Championships: 0
It was the announcement of Jost Capito’s Williams departure which served as the initial shock in that year’s team boss ‘silly season’, the confirmation that he and Williams’ technical director FX Demaison were both leaving had not been expected.
The team would move to appoint James Vowles, who left his role as Mercedes’ strategy chief to become a team principal for the first time with Williams.
He has set about a full sweep of improving the infrastructure in place at Williams, with a view to putting the team back at the top table of Formula 1 in the coming years.
Haas – Ayao Komatsu
Date of appointment: January 2024
Races with the team: 49
Wins: 0
Drivers’ Championships: 0
Constructors’ Championships: 0
Ayao Komatsu succeeded Guenther Steiner at Haas ahead of the 2024 season, becoming Haas’ second team principal.
Komatsu at been with the team as trackside engineering director to that point, having joined in 2016, following Romain Grosjean to the operation from Enstone.
There, he’d worked as a race engineer, first with Vitaly Petrov and then with Grosjean in 2012, and was eventually promoted to chief race engineer.
Audi – Jonathan Wheatley
Date of appointment: April 2025
Races with the team: 22 [including as Sauber]
Wins: 0
Drivers’ Championships: 0
Constructors’ Championships: 0
Red Bull announced the departure of long-serving sporting director Jonathan Wheatley in mid-2024, and it was soon confirmed that he would become Audi F1’s first Formula 1 team principal ahead of their highly anticipated F1 2026 arrival.
Wheatley officially took up his new position with the existing Sauber time on April 1 2025, five days before that year’s Japanese Grand Prix.
Alpine – Flavio Briatore
Date of appointment: May 2025
Races with the team: 19*
Wins: 0*
Drivers’ Championships: 0*
Constructors’ Championships: 0*
Oliver Oakes – only appointed by Alpine back in July 2024 – resigned shortly following the 2025 Miami Grand Prix, after less than a year in the role.
“Personal” reasons were cited by Alpine executive advisor Flavio Briatore for Oakes’s exit, and following that development, Briatore would assume the Brit’s responsibilities, becoming the de facto team boss as he returned to the helm of the team which he previously led to championship glory under their Benetton and Renault identities.
Managing director, Steve Nielsen, reports into Briatore on a day-to-day basis.
*Current tenure. Briatore also helmed the Enstone team in its Benetton and Renault guises from 1991 to 1997, and from 2000 to 2009
Red Bull – Laurent Mekies
Date of appointment: July 2025
Races with the team: 13
Wins: 6
Drivers’ Championships: 0
Constructors’ Championships: 0
Announced as Christian Horner’s successor at Red Bull, it was an internal promotion of sorts for Laurent Mekies. Prior to his shock promotion, Mekies had been team principal of Racing Bulls, where he’d taken over from Franz Tost following the Austrian’s retirement at the end of 2023.
He took on the role after leaving Ferrari, where he had been racing director.
Mekies only became only the second team principal at both Red Bull and Racing Bulls since the energy drinks company acquired them.
The Frenchman had also served as Ferrari’s deputy team principal alongside his duties as racing director.
Racing Bulls – Alan Permane
Date of appointment: July 2025
Races with the team: 13
Wins: 0
Drivers’ Championships: 0
Constructors’ Championships: 0
After more than two decades at Enstone, and through the many guises the operation had, Alan Permane left the organisation midway through the 2023 season – one of two senior departures alongside Otmar Szafnauer.
He quickly found a new home after he was appointed racing director of Racing Bulls in time for the 2024 season. The Brit was then promoted to team principal of the Faenza operation midway through the 2025 campaign when Laurent Mekies was promoted in place of Christian Horner at Red Bull.
Cadillac – Graeme Lowdon
Date of appointment: December 2024
Races with the team: 0
Wins: 0
Drivers’ Championships: 0
Constructors’ Championships: 0
While the Cadillac Formula 1 team was not due to join the grid until the 2026 season, the team moved early to secure the services of former Manor boss, Graeme Lowdon, in December 2024.
This has allowed Lowdon to not only settle into his role before returning to Formula 1, but have his say on key moves as the team prepares itself to join the sport next season.
Having been with the General Motors-backed Cadillac operation for two years beforehand in an advisory capacity, Lowdon was moved into the team principal role as the team prepares to transition to life in Formula 1.
Aston Martin – Adrian Newey
Date of appointment: January 2026
Races with the team: 0
Wins: 0
Drivers’ Championships: 0
Constructors’ Championships: 0
Adrian Newey joined Aston Martin in the newly-created role of ‘managing technical partner’ in March 2025, but will be taking on the duties of team principal for the first time in his storied career in 2026.
Wtih Aston Martin having restructured in a way that puts former team boss, Andy Cowell, at the forefront of power unit development, Newey will be at the helm of the team along with his duties at the top of the team’s design department.
Taking on the role from January 2026, Newey will be looking to add to the considerable success he has achieved in design, as a team principal.
Recently replaced team bosses:
Andy Cowell (Aston Martin) – Date of appointment: January 2025. Date of new role: January 2026.
Aston Martin announced an organisational restructure in 2025 that confirmed Andy Cowell, who began a new role as Group CEO at the team two months beforehand in October 2024, would take on a dual role of CEO and team principal.
Previous team principal, Mike Krack, would remain with the team in a revised role of ‘chief trackside officer’, meaning Krack would still lead on the trackside operations at race weekends – but Cowell would take on overall responsibility as team principal moving forward.
This was Cowell’s first role as team principal, before taking on a new senior role that focussed on his strength in the power unit department, with Newey taking on team principal duties.
Christian Horner (Red Bull) – Date of appointment: January 2005. Date of departure: July 2025
Having retired from racing at the age of only 25, Horner started pursuing a career in management, buying a stake in the Arden International team which has enjoyed plenty of success in the junior racing scene.
But as Horner looked for a route into Formula 1, Red Bull gave him that opportunity by appointing him team principal of their new outfit at the start of 2005, following their purchase of Jaguar.
Horner remained in charge for two decades, the team winning six Constructors’ Championships in that time, plus seven Drivers’ titles courtesy of Sebastian Vettel (four) and Max Verstappen (three).
Oliver Oakes (Alpine) – Date of appointment: July 2024. Date of departure: May 2025.
In replacing Bruno Famin as he stepped back from team principal duties, Oliver Oakes became the second-youngest team principal in the history of Formula 1 when the then-36-year-old was announced as the new team boss at Alpine.
That saw the Hitech GP founder step up from the junior categories to test himself in Formula 1 for the first time.
But, in May 2025, he would step down from the Alpine team principal role.
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