Otmar Szafnauer: “When Force India went into administration, my role was to keep the team together”
F1 Beyond The Grid
karenellenbevan
4.7 • 5.3K Ratings
🗓️ 12 December 2018
⏱️ 57 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
Though he's been in F1 a long time, you may not have been overly familiar with Otmar Szafnauer before this year. As COO of Force India, the American played a key role in turning them into one of the best pound for pound teams on the grid. But when driver Sergio Perez pulled the trigger and sent the Silverstone squad into administration in mid-2018, Szafnauer found himself on a course that ultimately led to him becoming Team Principal of a new entity: Racing Point.
On this week’s episode of Beyond The Grid, presented by Bose, Szafnauer talks Tom through his ‘most stressful’ of seasons, discusses the potential impact of fresh funding into the team, his hopes for 2019, and his fascinating background in the sport…
Transcript
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| 0:30.5 | I'm up Marsefe now and you're listening to Beyond the Grid |
| 0:39.7 | Hi everyone Tom Clarkson here now the F1 season is over the prizes have been handed out |
| 0:46.4 | But we're back with another episode of Beyond the Grid presented by Bose quiet comfort 35 to wireless headphones |
| 0:54.2 | My guest this week is someone who's worked in F1 for 20 years |
| 0:58.1 | But he isn't a household name at least not yet |
| 1:02.0 | Following the upheaval at force in beer in the summer when Sergio Perez triggered a change of ownership by putting the team into |
| 1:08.5 | Administration this particular gentleman emerged as team principal and the face of the Silverstone based team |
| 1:15.7 | I'm talking of course about Ottmar Safnour |
| 1:19.1 | Ottmar has a fascinating backstory having amassed a huge amount of F1 experience working for British American racing and then Honda |
| 1:27.0 | Prior to joining force India 10 years ago |
| 1:30.1 | He lived through Adrian Raynard's claims that BAR would win their first race. Do you remember that? |
| 1:35.8 | He worked with World Champion Jack Villeneuve and a host of other top drivers and he even joined Jaguar racing all be it only on paper |
| 1:44.1 | Yet his most stressful season of all was the one just gone with force India |
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