F1 2025: Meet the 10 team principals

Know which 2025 F1 team principal is a world-karting champion and who used to be a shareholder in Williams before joining his current team?

No fear if you don't, as we take a look at the 10 familiar faces who are currently serving as F1 team principals in 2025. 

Should one leave their job over the course of this season, of course, this article will be updated!

This article has been updated in light of Andy Cowell succeeding Mike Krack as Aston Martin team principal.

McLaren - Andrea Stella

Place and date of birth - Orvieto, Italy - 22nd February, 1971

When started as team principal - 13th December 2022

Andrea Stella first joined McLaren back in 2015 as head of race operations, following Fernando Alonso from Ferrari, where he had been the Spanish driver's race engineer.

He was promoted up through the ranks to racing director in 2019 under the stewardship of Andreas Seidl and CEO Zak Brown as McLaren began to pull itself out of the doldrums of the mid-2010s. 

Seidl would leave at the end of 2022 to return to the Volkswagen camp to head up Audi's transition for its 2026 entry, meaning Brown promoted Stella to team principal.

The affable Italian then guided the team to its first constructors' championship since 1998 in his second full season in charge.

Ferrari - Frederic Vasseur

Place and date of birth - Draveil, France - 28th May, 1968

When started as team principal - 13th December, 2022

Starting in the role the same day as Stella at McLaren, Frederic Vasseur was hired to knock a Ferrari team into shape after a season under Mattia Binotto in which it had the fastest car but operational errors cost it dearly.

The jovial Vasseur spoiled Red Bull's perfect 2023 with a Ferrari victory in Singapore and mounted the team's best title charge since 2012 in '24 for the constructors'. 

For the first time since 2012, Ferrari went into the final race with a chance of winning a world championship - the constructors' - but its five wins were not quite enough to topple McLaren. 

The wait goes on, but Vasseur has whipped Ferrari in a racer's team. 

Oh, and he signed Lewis Hamilton for 2025 as well.

Red Bull - Christian Horner

Place and date of birth - Leamington Spa, UK - 16th November, 1973

When started as team principal - 7th January, 2005

One of the most successful team principals in F1 history, Christian Horner has been at the helm of Red Bull for all of its 393 race starts, 122 wins and 14 world championship titles.

A failed racing driver in his own right, Horner turned his hand to team management with his Arden junior squad, before going onto be hand-picked by Dietrich Mateschitz to lead his new Red Bull Racing team in 2005.

Horner has a reputation as a key political player in the paddock, and is never too shy of offering opinions on a variety of subjects. 

He was subject to an internal investigation from Red Bull GmbH, the parent company in early 2024 after allegations of inappropriate behaviour were made by an employee.

He rejected the claims and the investigation cleared him of wrongdoing.

Mercedes - Toto Wolff

Place and date of birth - Vienna, Austria - 12th January, 1972

When started as team principal - joined Mercedes in 2013

Toto Wolff's first entry to F1 was actually with Williams as a director in 2009 and was present when Pastor Maldonado won the 2012 Spanish GP, Williams' last win to date.

By 2013, Wolff was on the move to Mercedes, working under Ross Brawn, but it would never last with Brawn leaving at the end of the year with Mercedes splitting the traditional team principal role.

Wolff assumed all business and commercial matters with Paddy Lowe focusing on matters technical for the first three seasons of the turbo hybrid era which the team dominated.

Lowe's exit at the end of 2016 allowed for a more familiar structure to take place, with Wolff guiding the team to a total of 15 of 16 titles between 2014 and 2021. 

Since 2022, he has been trying to guide the team back to championship contention after being tripped up by the ground-effect rules.

Aston Martin - Andy Cowell

Place and date of birth - United Kingdom - 12th February, 1969

When started as team principal - 10th January, 2025

Andy Cowell took over from Mike Krack ahead of the 2025 F1 season, having joined Aston Martin as group CEO in July 2024.

Cowell cut his teeth in F1 with Cosworth in the late 1990s, before spending a year with BMW in 2000. In that year he led the engineering group that developed Williams' engine for the following season. He then returned to Cosworth as principal engineer for F1 design and development before joining Mercedes in 2004.

He worked on a number of projects and in a selection of roles for the German marque before becoming the managing director of Mercedes AMG High Performance Powertrains in January 2013. Whilst in that capacity, he oversaw the development of the team's first V6 turbo-hybrid power unit, which took the F1 grid by storm.

During his tenure, Mercedes won 12 F1 champions (six drivers' and six constructors') before leaving in June 2020.

Alpine - Oliver Oakes

Place and date of birth - United Kingdom, January 11th, 1988

When started as team principal - 31st July, 2024

The newest team principal, Oliver Oakes stepped up to lead Alpine's F1 effort after a long period of time in junior categories, running his Hitech Grand Prix team.

Oakes, a former world karting champion, replaced Bruno Famin in another team principal change at Enstone after Szafnauer and Famin both came and went as the team lacked stability.

But under Oakes, they rose from midfield also-rans to regular top 10 contenders, climbing to sixth in the 2024 constructors', earning possibly $30 million extra in prize money.

Haas - Ayao Komatsu

Place and date of birth - Tokyo, Japan - 28th January, 1976

When started as team principal - January 10th, 2024

Ayao Komatsu first started in F1 in 2003 with BAR (which is Mercedes today), before moving onto Renault and Lotus, rising to Romain Grosjean's race engineer and then chief race engineer.

He followed Grosjean to Haas for 2016, becoming trackside engineering chief for the new team, holding that position under Guenther Steiner's contract was not renewed for 2024.

Komatsu stepped up to the team principal role, overseeing a successful season for Haas as it climbed from last to seventh in the standings, only being pipped by Alpine in the end.

Racing Bulls - Laurent Mekies

Place and date of birth - Tours, France - April 28th, 1977

When started as team principal - 3rd January, 2024

Laurent Mekies has had quite a journey in F1.

He started off at Arrows in 2000, before moving to Toro Rosso (now Racing Bulls) as chief engineer, leaving in 2014 to join the FIA as safety director. 

By 2018, he was on the move again to Ferrari, eventually rising to deputy team principal when his old team, now AlphaTauri came calling as part of a management refresh with Franz Tost heading into retirement.

Mekies assumed Tost's role for 2024, with the team called Visa Cash App RB - but for 2025, it is now simply Racing Bulls.

Williams - James Vowles

Place and date of birth - Felbridge, UK - June 20th, 1979

When started as team principal - January 13th, 2023

A trusted lieutenant of Toto Wolff and Lewis Hamilton at Mercedes as strategy director, Vowles got his chance to step up in 2023 after Jost Capito left Williams. 

Vowles has spent much of the last two seasons trying to fix the team's culture and practices, bringing them up to a modern standard after years of Williams falling behind.

He has signed Carlos Sainz from Ferrari to parter Alex Albon, with the Williams boss the fourth person to lead the team after Sir Frank, Simon Roberts, and Capito.

Stake - Mattia Binotto (interim)

Place and date of birth - November 3rd, 1969

When started as team principal - January 15th, 2025

Mattia Binotto was announced as the chief technical officer and chief engineering officer of Stake in 2024, and following the departure of Alessandro Alunni Bravi on January 15th 2025, became interim team principal. 

The role is to be filled later in 2025 by the arrival of Jonathan Wheatley from Red Bull, the long-time sporting director having left the Milton Keynes team for a step up ahead of Audi's arrival next year.