Ranked: All 11 F1 team bosses with a surprise top-three entry

One mid-season sacking means 11 different people have filled the team principal role this year but who exceeded expectations and who underwhelmed?

While not necessarily as famous as the likes of football managers, F1 team principals play a key role in guiding a team to success or in some cases, failure.

Who was the best F1 team principal on the grid in 2025?

11.) Alessandro Alunni Bravi – Stake F1

Oversaw one of the worst seasons in modern history and one that looked destined to end on zero points until Zhou Guanyu scored in Qatar.

With the vague title of ‘Team Representative’, it is hard to know exactly what the 50-year-old Italian does other than attend press conferences.

In those press conferences, too much time was spent speaking of the future and Audi when there are plenty of here and now problems. The team was distant last and looks almost certain to be again in 2025.

10.) Bruno Famin – Alpine (Sacked in July)

A truly horrendous start that saw Alpine begin as the slowest car on the grid and a man who replaced Otmar Szafnauer looked determined to point the blame at his predecessors.

Technical Director Matt Harman walked away before the season started which followed the departures of Szafnauer and Alan Permane.

Behind-the-scenes, there was a great deal of uncertainty about the Viry engine project and Renault’s dedication to F1 and Flavio Briatore was drafted in to essentially do the job Famin had failed to do.

9.) Mike Krack – Aston Martin

A frustrating season for Aston Martin saw them make very little progress from the start of the season to the end of it.

The main positive was the signing of Adrian Newey but given Lawrence Stroll’s notable demand for success, Mike Krack must feel the pressure after another lacklustre campaign.

Stroll has put his money where his mouth is and if the team endure a similar season in 2025, he could be ready to choose a new figurehead to guide Aston Martin into F1’s new era.

8.) James Vowles – Williams

A difficult second year for James Vowles who struggled to build on the success of his debut season.

Williams have built a better all-round car but in doing so, they took away the straight line pace that enabled them to score 28 points last season.

Vowles should be praised for the decisiveness he showed in dropping Logan Sargeant and the choice of Franco Colapinto proved to be a smart, and possibly lucrative, one.

But still, it was not so much a step backward but a standing still that has seen them move down the order.

7.) Laurent Mekies – VCARB

A decent, if slightly underwhelming, first season for the former Ferrari man and one where he had to navigate a lot of change.

The departure of Daniel Ricciardo and arrival of Liam Lawson came during a year where Mekies was finding his feet in the Red Bull organisation.

The team finished eighth but didn’t live up to the pre-season hype.

6.) Toto Wolff – Mercedes

An improvement for Mercedes but another year where they are well off the title-contending pace.

Lewis Hamilton to Ferrari may have always happened in the end but no doubt it was a decision made easier by Mercedes’ decision not to hand the seven-time World Champion a two-year+ deal.

With Kimi Antonelli coming in and Hamilton’s form faltering towards the end of the year, it may prove to be a masterstroke but Wolff has overseen another underwhelming finish in the Constructors’.

5.) Christian Horner – Red Bull

The Drivers’ title may be heading back to Milton Keynes but Red Bull let slip their iron-grip on the Constructors’.

If you were to summarise Red Bull’s season in one word it would be: tumultuous. A year that started with an investigation into Horner spilled into intra-team battles and scars have been formed.

The team lost its lead designer and found themselves falling down the order with incorrect development choices.

There has also been an uncharacteristic lack of decisiveness from Red Bull with Sergio Perez allowed to linger long enough for McLaren to snatch the title.

A third place finish after a title win is a drop that could have been avoided but Verstappen’s fourth title relieves some of the pressure.

4.) Oliver Oakes – Alpine (Hired in August)

The only team to change principals mid-season was Alpine and it proved a very smart decision with the French constructor enjoying an upturn in form since the Briton took over.

Oakes oversaw Alpine’s best finish in years with the Sao Paulo Grand Prix double podium and there is a great deal more optimism in Enstone now than there was at the start of the season.

3.) Fred Vasseur – Ferrari

Still not the trophy-winning season Ferrari fans thirst for but Fred Vasseur continues to put the historic team back on track.

He pulled off the coup of the century to lure Lewis Hamilton to the team for next season but in the meantime, he had arguably the strongest driver pairing on the grid and was able to maximise the times when Ferrari were on top.

The black mark on his copybook was the poor run following Monaco and had that not occurred, the team may well have won the Constructors’.

Still though, there is more optimism around Maranello than there has been for a number of years and Vasseur has alleviated the on-edge tension that engulfed the team.

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2.) Ayao Komatsu – Haas

I will be the first to put my hands up and say that when Guenther Steiner departed, I felt someone who had never been a team principal before in a team with limited resources was guaranteed to see them finish last – but how wrong I was.

Under Ayao Komatsu, Haas have let their talking happen on the track and his calm, measured approach to leadership has seen the team flourish.

He got the best out of Nico Hulkenberg and his technical expertise allowed the team to make a better race car than they had last year.

When faced with the news that Hulkenberg was departing, Komatsu managed to lure Esteban Ocon and has put faith in Oliver Bearman for 2025.

A great first season for the Haas boss.

1.) Andrea Stella – McLaren

Lando Norris, Oscar Piastri and even Zak Brown are more household names but the quiet genius behind the McLaren revolution is Andrea Stella.

Given the top job after Andreas Seidl moved on, Stella has revolutionised the Woking team. Tearing up the technical structure, he lured top talents such as Red Bull’s Rob Marshall to the outfit all while the team focused on making the MTC a leader in the sport again.

His management has had its weaknesses, mostly when it came to strategy execution, but he has delivered silverware for the first time since 1998.

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