In the second part of our exclusive interview with former Formula 1 team boss Otmar Szafnauer, we discover more about his plans to tackle the sport’s premier feeder series with Van Amersfoort Racing.
Having taken over as CEO of the outfit last year, results are steadily improving in both Formula 2 and Formula 3, showing so far that the proof of the pudding is feeding the team to score some impressive results.
Szafnauer’s background in both engineering and business has influenced his approach to team management in motorsport.
“I think you need a bit of an engineering understanding,” he admitted. “The business background does help, and if you can combine those two, then you have just a better understanding of what’s happening on a race team.”
The feeders series differs from F1 in a key way. While F1 sees teams separated by developmental imbalances and back markers can put in plenty of work yet still end up at the back of the field, F2 is organised differently.
Inherently, it’s a spec series, which means the cars don’t have huge performance differences like in F1, since they all share the same chassis, engines, and gearboxes.
It creates tighter pack racing and orders which change from one race weekend to the next. With the finest of margins needed to lead the pack, Szafnauer admitted that in many ways it’s more ‘satisfying’ than working in F1.
“You’ve got to put in a lot more work at the margin to make a difference to see that result, and it is more satisfying because the degrees of freedom of what you can do in F2 and F3 are much less.
“Because you don’t have that degree of freedom, then within the realm of what you can change, you really, really have to have a good understanding so that you can actually make the car go quicker.”
The challenges of the feeder series
F2 also faces the challenge of smaller team sizes. Fewer people within the team bring opportunities, but equally, continued challenges.
“It is more close-knit,” he said. “You have a better understanding and a deeper relationship with everybody on the team than when you have a thousand or twelve hundred people working for you, and you’re the team principal of a Formula 1 team.
“You don’t have that close-knit relationship with everybody, although my management style was such that I like to know everybody on the team, it’s just now I’ll get to know them a bit more deeply.”
Taking over a team such as Van Amersfoort Racing doesn’t lead to instant results; instead, it is a process. Since his introduction to the team, VAR has faced a turnaround. However, the CEO was humble about his involvement in the changes. Claiming it isn’t operational but rather the way he’s empowered people.
“Well, like I said, it’s not operationally me, but I think it’s a part of it that is definitely strategically what I’ve done to empower the people to do what I think is important, and for sure that’s got to have an influence; otherwise, we shouldn’t be doing it.”
Szafnauer came into VAR with hopes of bringing the team consistent results and performance. So far, the work has paid off with the F3 team sitting third in the Teams Championship. All three drivers in the team have been finding rhythm, collecting podiums and wins over the first half of the F3 season.
However, Szafnauer wants more for the team. “Long-term, it’s like I said to Rafa [Villagomez], you know, there’s got to be an F2, F3, F4 team that’s the best and why not us?” He said.
“So let’s understand what it takes to be the best and start working towards that. That was my goal.”
READ MORE – Otmar Szafnauer: ‘I’m too old to work with human beings who aren’t decent’
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