Feature

Otmar Szafnauer's path to Formula 1 success and survival

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A long path towards Formula 1

Fate might have conspired to place Otmar Szafnauer at the heart of some of the most dramatic moments of recent Formula 1 history, but it was the man himself whose talent and hard work throughout his professional life and career meant he was up to the challenge when it came calling.

It's a long journey from a small village in western Romania to the pinnacle of global motorsport and the glitz and glamor surrounding F1. Szafnauer took his first steps along that road as a young eight-year-old when he moved to the US thanks to his American father, settling in Detroit where the then-thriving spirit of the automotive industry was in the very air and fabric of the city.

He went to Wayne State University and studied electrical engineering, and subsequently completed a master's degree in business and finance at the University of Detroit. But by now cars - and moreover, racing - were firmly in his blood. In 1986 he joined the Ford Motor Company as a programme manager while also signing up for the Jim Russell Racing Driver School, which led to his first outings in Formula Ford in 1991.

He arrived in F1 in 1998 when he accepted the role of Operations Director at the new British American Racing team. The team's links to Honda later led to an offer from the Japanese manufacturer to become Vice President of Honda Racing Developments as well as a member of the management board of the Honda F1 team. However at the end of 2008 Honda abruptly pulled the plug on its involvement in the sport with immediate effect, leaving team principal Ross Brawn struggling to keep the squad going as an independent concern - and to somehow end up with the driver and team championships in 2009.

It must have been galling for all those who so narrowly missed out on their share of such unexpected miraculous success. By this point Szafnauer himself had moved on and founded a new digital business, Soft Pauer, which released the first official F1 timing and track positioning app for the iPhone. But it wasn't the same as being at the real heart of motor racing and in October 2009 he was approached by Force India, a new team that had just been formed by the acquisition of the struggling Spyker team (formerly Jordan) by a consortium led by businessmen Vijay Mallya and Michiel Mol. Now Szafnauer would have the opportunity to show what he could achieve in the sport.

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Andrew Lewin

Andrew first became a fan of Formula 1 during the time when Michael Schumacher and Damon Hill were stepping into the limelight after the era of Alain Prost, Nigel Mansell and Aryton Senna. He's been addicted ever since, and has been writing about the sport now for nearly a quarter of a century for a number of online news sites. He's also written professionally about GP2 (now Formula 2), GP3, IndyCar, World Rally Championship, MotoGP and NASCAR. In his other professional life, Andrew is a freelance writer, social media consultant, web developer/programmer, and digital specialist in the fields of accessibility, usability, IA, online communities and public sector procurement. He worked for many years in magazine production at Bauer Media, and for over a decade he was part of the digital media team at the UK government's communications department. Born and raised in Essex, Andrew currently lives and works in south-west London.