Former F1 boss reveals he paid millions in team salaries - twice!

Otmar Szafnauer has revealed he paid the salaries for the Force India team - twice - as it struggled financially. 

Force India was part of the F1 grid between 2008 and mid-way through the 2018 campaign when it went into administration after the Hungarian Grand Prix. It was brought by Lawrence Stroll and re-badged as Racing Point before morphing into what is now Aston Martin for 2021. 

Szafnauer departed in early 2022, eventually joining Alpine, but has revealed that during the financial struggles Force India faced, he elected to pay the salaries of the entire team to ensure payment was not late for the 400 or so employees at the time. 

"Twice, but it wasn't that much," Szafnauer explained on the High Performance podcast, when asked if it was true that he had paid the salaries.

"It was in the millions and I paid it with the help of my partner at Soft Pauer (a website and app design company). 

“We had money in the business. I had my own money, and I knew the salaries were not going to get paid, and I knew how difficult that is for people.

“Some people live paycheck to paycheck, and I understand it.

“We had to pay the salaries, and the Formula 1 money was coming in five days’ time. So say the salaries are due on a Friday, and we’re getting the Formula 1 money the following Wednesday.

“So I could have waited, not paid on Friday, or paid with my own money and then waited until Wednesday to get that money back from when the Formula 1 money came."

A risk for Szafnauer

Szafnauer, who has since left Alpine, acknowledged the "huge risk" of a delay in receiving the F1 money, especially if another creditor demanded payment 

"Between that Friday and the Wednesday, there’s a huge risk of, well, what if that money doesn’t come?" he said. 

"Or what if that money does come, and somebody else knocks on the door and says: ‘Hey, you owe me $2 million, and unless you give me this money, I’m shutting you down.'

"So that was five, six, seven days of, ‘What if?'”

Szafnauer also kept his actions secret from the rank and file of the team, with only senior team members knowing. 

"A few knew," he said.

"The finance department and [technical director] Andy Green knew, there were a few, but no, I did not tell [the team]."