Top 5: F1 Team Principals
Claire Danaher
Posted on: 25 June 2009 - 13:07
MotorSport
While the drivers get all the glory in Formula One, team bosses make sure the team works together and brings home the titles. The best of the bosses certainly have had there own time in the limelight both with success and controversy. Sport.co.uk looks at the five top team principals whose presence has changed the face of the sport.
1.Ron Dennis
D.O.B. 01/06/1947
Seven constructor’s championships.
Ten driver’s championships.
McLaren team boss from 1980 to 2009.
He turned the fortunes of McLaren around in the 1980s and helped them to secure seven constructors and 10 driver’s championships over the nineteen years he was there. Notable successes are the team’s back to back wins with Ayrton Senna in the 1990-1991 seasons.
His most controversial time in the sport was in the 2007 season when the team was found guilty of obtaining a rival team’s technical information and were disqualified from the constructor’s championship.
2.Patrick Head (technical director)
D.O.B. 05/06/1945
Nine constructor’s championships.
Seven driver’s championships.
Technical director and team principal with Sir Frank Williams from 1977.
In a seven year period between 1991 and 1997, Williams had fifty-nine race wins, won five constructors titles, and four different drivers won world championships under the leadership of Head.
When Ayrton Senna died at the 1994 San Marino Grand Prix, Head along with Williams and engineer Adrian Newey were accused of manslaughter under Italian law. The trial closed and all three were cleared in 2005.
3.Jean Todt
D.O.B. 25/02/1946
Seven constructor’s championships.
Six driver’s championships.
Scuderia Ferrari team principal from 1993 – 2007
He was in charge of the Ferrari team for the whole of Schumacher’s dominating era. Schumacher retired at the end of the 2006 season and as predicted in the press Jean Todt followed suit the next year.
His girlfriend is the actress Michelle Yeoh.
4.Flavio Briatorie
D.O.B. 12/04/1950
Three constructor’s championships.
Four driver’s championships.
He met Luciano Benetton, founder of the Benetton clothing company while working on the stock exchange. Through this friendship he was given the role of team principal from 1990 to 1997. In this time Schumacher won two titles for the team before going to Ferrari.
Briatorie took over as team principal for Renault when they bought out Benetton in 2000. He went on to win two world championships with Fernando Alonso at the wheel.
He is well known for his relationships with supermodels such as Naomi Campbell and Heidi Klum, whom he has a child with. He married 28 year old Italian wonderbra model Elisabetta Gregoraci in 2008.
5.Ross Brawn
D.O.B. 23/11/1954
Brawn worked as a technical director for Benetton in the mid 1990s helping them win two drivers championships with Schumacher and one constructor’s championship. He followed Schumacher to Ferrari in 1996 and was given the role of technical director there. He is credited with being the mastermind behind the race strategies that won Schumacher his five world championships at Ferrari and contributing to the six constructor’s championships Ferrari won while he was there.
He now owns his own team Brawn GP which is currently leading the 2009 driver’s championship with Jenson Button and the constructor’s championship.