For a cigar with Blick-Benoit: The craziest Formula 1 team bosses of all time

class=”sc-cffd1e67-0 fmXrkB”>

Dear Roger, Today I would like to talk to you about the Formula 1 team bosses. Do you remember your 1998 sympathy chart?
Roger Benoit: Yes of course. At the time I gave the eleven team bosses sympathy points. From one point for McLaren’s Ron Dennis to ten points for Giancarlo Minardi.

What happened then?
The hit parade appeared shortly before the Argentine GP. In Buenos Aires, Formula 1 boss Bernie Ecclestone told his right-hand man, Pasquale Lattuneddu, to make copies of it and put them up everywhere. While I was walking to the toilet in the paddock, Ron Dennis came up to me and looked at me very angrily. If he had had a gun at that moment, he would have shot me.

Why?
I only realized this when I was sitting on the toilet, because Ecclestone had also hung a copy of my hit parade there. But I also received positive feedback. While I was sitting in the press room, a man in the Minardi team uniform suddenly came up to me and said that his boss would like to see me. Giancarlo Minardi then explained to me that I could eat with them for free as long as I lived.

We are already in the middle of the good old days. In the past, team bosses were real racers with rough edges and not smooth managers.
Talking about Buenos Aires and real racers. I immediately think of Ken Tyrrell. At the Argentine GP, Ecclestone offered him $100 if he would throw Colin Chapman, the monsieur among team bosses, and his clothes into the pool. Of course Tyrrell did it.

Tyrrell is also said to have imposed a sex ban on his drivers.
Sir Jackie Stewart once told me that. The drivers were not allowed to have sex the night before the GP. But Tyrrell had other quirks too.

For example?
If a driver came onto the track unshaven or wearing shorts, he sent him back to the hotel. Under Tyrrell, Valtteri Bottas would have been sent back a few times. I was once having dinner in Anderstorp with Martin Brundle, who rode for Tyrrell at the start of his career. At ten o’clock sharp Tyrrell came over and told Brundle to go to sleep now.

What did Brundle do then?
He got up and went to sleep soundly. Tyrrell was soft on the inside, but otherwise tough. Gregor Foitek, one of Tyrrell’s greatest talents, also had to experience this. But he once said to me: “If I accept it, the contract must state that his father must be at least twenty kilometers away from the track during each race. Normally he always talks nicely.” His father Karl, who died in 2019, may have made it impossible for his son to have a longer Formula 1 career.

Speaking of Swiss Formula 1 drivers. Wasn’t there something wrong with Marc Surer?
When Surer was driving for Arrows, his team bosses Jackie Oliver and Alan Rees asked him: “What kind of tires do you need?” And what did Surer answer? “The black!” Oliver told me later that they almost threw him out because of that.

Frank Williams was also a real racer.
When he was young, he stole flowers from other gardens and later sold them. Or when his colleagues offered him money to run naked around church steeples, he did it. Williams once told me: “Of course you can’t always believe everything journalists say. But those who believe everything the team bosses say are even worse off.” I’ve always loved Williams, Bernie did the same and probably saved the race team ten times when it faced another financial collapse.

Speaking of Bernie Ecclestone: As boss, did he occasionally play the team bosses against each other?
Let’s put it this way: Bernie started a lot of fires that he was then able to put out himself. He once happily told a team boss. One time Bernie even did something incredible.

What?
A team has complained to him about the regulations year after year. At one point Bernie said to the team boss: “Then write the regulations for next season yourself.” They were actually allowed to, but you know what’s best?

No.
They still did not become world champions that season. Greetings to Maranello…

In the wild Formula 1 years, there were also team bosses who were not completely clean.
Once upon a time there was a man named Jean-Pierre Van Rossem who was in charge of Onyx. It felt like it came from the underworld. He had one foot in the Belgian parliament and the other in prison. He always came roaring up in his Ferrari and the scantily clad women got out from the back. But that didn’t bother anyone at the time. Anyone who could bring a shoebox to the start was allowed to start. There was a similar person whose name I can’t remember now. If the English journalists criticized him too much, he would simply have them put in a car and thrown out of the car somewhere in the middle of nowhere.

There was a phase where many Italian teams participated. Was everything always clean there?
No! There were teams, especially Italian ones, that officially received 10 million dollars from a sponsor and then gave 5 back under the table. That was a good deal for both parties.

When you think of legendary team bosses, you also think of Eddie Jordan and Flavio Briatore.
Jordan was a villain. By the way, to this day the Briton still cannot understand that his former partner Peter Sauber once contracted more than a third of his team to a woman.

Keyword Flavio Briatore?
A real playboy, the James Hunt among team bosses. He once invited me to his yacht in Monte Carlo. Suddenly you walk past Naomi Campbell. That was special, but somehow not my world. And certainly not comparable to today.

What does it look like today?
The team bosses of the past had perseverance and passion. Nowadays it’s all about money. Every team is now worth a billion. If a team boss today doesn’t earn 150,000 euros a month, he is an idiot and has done something wrong. In short: Formula 1 used to be a sport, nowadays it is just coal, coal, coal.

25 years have passed since your last sympathy chart. What would this look like at the end of 2023?
The winner with nine points is Franz Tost from Alpha Tauri. A man with clear language. Too bad he won’t be there in 2024. He was always open and honest – a racer. It is great that his former student Max Verstappen paid him such a warm tribute during the final in Abu Dhabi.

Who else will make it to the podium?
Günther Steiner of Haas came second with eight points. Unlike many others, he is not a sweet talker, but modest. In third place with seven points is Andrea Stella from McLaren: always friendly, always willing to provide information.

What’s next?
Six points for Williams’ James Vowles: the former Mercedes strategy boss is doing a good job. Aston Martin’s Mike Krack also gets six points. The former man from Hinwil is always friendly, but is not always allowed to say what he thinks because of team owner Stroll. And Toto Wolff from Mercedes also gets six points. He is very intelligent, a clear leader, has things under control, but is often too emotional.

Let’s move to the back half.
Five points for Alfa-Sauber’s Andreas Seidl: difficult to judge because things have improved there since he left McLaren and the German is currently struggling in Hinwil. After the Audi confirmation, his life may now be a little easier. There are also five points for Christian Horner of Red Bull and Frédéric Vasseur of Ferrari. Horner is a tough guy. He is not willing to compromise, he only has one look that works for his team. As Binotto’s successor, Ferrari-Vasseur still has to prove that he really has the chaos in Maranello under control.

Only one is missing.
In last place with two points is Bruno Famin of Alpine: a puppet of the often troubled French racing team. A peripheral figure and successor to the charismatic Otmar Szafenauer, who now provides VIP guests at many races for the FIA.

What strikes me about your list is that it contains names that we hardly know anymore.
That’s exactly the problem today. They are no longer boys with rough edges, they are no longer racers. Some of them are interchangeable characters and many of them are sweet talkers. Mo Nunn and his Ensign racing team used to show up at the track with just ten mechanics. Nowadays, many teams employ up to 50 people in the advertising and marketing department alone. Shame!

Source : Blick