F1 team principal with net worth 10x less than Horner covered salaries for entire team | F1 | Sport

Former Formula One team principal Otmar Szafnauer was forced to cover the salaries of team members at Force India to keep the constructor afloat.

Force India, under several different guises, spent 10 years in Formula One, but things were rarely smooth sailing, both on and off the track.

It took until their 30th race as a Formula One constructor for Force India to register their first points, which incidentally came at the same time as their maiden podium finish.

Giancarlo Fisichella finished second at the 2009 Belgian Grand Prix, but in their decade-long stint as a Formula One team, Force India failed to top the podium on any occasion.

Off the track Force India struggled too, with regular reports of financial difficulties plaguing them, before they were eventually placed into administration in July 2018.

Szafnauer was ever-present during this time and recently revealed the ins and outs, including the occasions he had to fork out his own money to keep the team afloat, in a recent edition of the High Performance Podcast.

Reminiscing on his time as Force India chief, Szafnauer said: “It was [the money he paid] in the millions. And I knew the salaries were not going to get paid.

“And I know how difficult that is for people. You know, some people live from paycheque to paycheque and I understand it. And I just couldn’t, we had to pay the salaries.”

The Romanian also revealed that very few people within the Force India camp knew about Szafnauer covering the salaries and that his motive was simply to ensure the team could continue racing.

A real motorsport lover, Szafnauer had been involved in Formula One since the 1980s, making it no surprise he’d go to great lengths to protect and continue to enhance his team’s chances of success.

But the biggest shock about Szafnauer’s revelation is that he was by no means the richest team principal in the Formula One paddock.

In fact, it was reported last year that Szafnauer boasts a net worth of £4.1million – a whopping £37m less than Red Bull star Christian Horner.

Even then Horner isn’t believed to be the team principal with the highest, as Mercedes guru Toto Wolff is said to have an estimated net worth in excess of £400m – wealth amassed from his time as a driver as well as the 33 per cent stake he holds in the German team.