Otmar Szafnauer

Otmar Marin Szafnauer (born 13 August 1964) is a Romanian and American engineer. He served as Team Principal of Alpine F1 Team from February 2022 to July 2023.

Biography Szafnauer was born in Semlac, a small village in Western Romania to an American father of German descent and a Romanian mother. His family moved to Detroit in the United States when he was seven years old. He received a Bachelor of Science degree in electrical engineering from Wayne State University in Detroit before completing a master's degree in business and finance from the University of Detroit Mercy. After leaving Honda in 2008, he founded Soft Pauer In February 2022, he joined the BWT Alpine F1 Team as team principal. He left Alpine after the 2023 Belgian Grand Prix.

After Alpine

Szafnauer has joined Jake Humphrey and Rob Smedley on the High Performance Racing Podcast, focusing on Formula 1 analysis.

He has taken on the role of CEO at Van Amersfoort Racing.

He has also launched EventR , a mobile app for team logistics with Alex Powell. This product was developed from his experiences as an F1 Team Principal.

Awards and recognition

In 2013, Szafnauer was inducted into the USF2000 Hall of Fame in recognition of his racing achievements in motorsport over the last twenty years.

USF2000 results

USAC FF2000 Eastern Division Championship Year Entrant 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 Pos Points 1993 ATL IRP WGI MOH RAM13 NHS SHA1 SHA2 LRP ??? ???

USAC FF2000 National Championship results Year Entrant 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 Pos Points 1994 IRP122 IRP219 500 WGI26 BFR18 TOP NHS19 SHA119 SHA226 LRP ??? ???

USF2000 National Championship Year Entrant 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 Pos Points 1995 PIR1 PIR2 500DNQ RIR WGI MOH1 NHS ATL1 ATL2 MOH1 – –