(Video) Sacked F1 team boss reveals he paid ‘millions’ in salaries to defunct-Force India employees

Otmar Szafnauer revealed that he had to personally pay Force India's employees' salaries twice in the past following the bankruptcy.

(Video) Sacked F1 team boss reveals he paid ‘millions’ in salaries to defunct-Force India employees

Otmar Szafnauer (via IMAGO, @HighPerformance/Instagram, Screenshot)

The Force India F1 team faced an extremely disappointing situation mid-way through the 2018 season. The India-based constructor had been put into administration (similar to bankruptcy) following the team owner Vijay Mallya‘s money laundering and fraud cases. Otmar Szafnauer had been on the Force India team since 2009 and also faced issues following Mallya’s illegal activities away from Formula 1.

Otmar Szafnauer continued with the same team following their rebranding to Racing Point in the 2019 season and ultimately Aston Martin. However, the 60-year-old left Aston Martin and joined Alpine for the 2022 season and was ousted from the team by the midway point of 2023. Following the fallout of Force India, Szafnauer revealed shocking details about the employees’ salaries.

YouTube video

Szafnauer claimed that he paid the employees’ salaries of the now-defunct Force India on two occasions. Additionally, the Romanian-American revealed that the salaries were easily in the figures of Millions of dollars. The 60-year-old noted that he knew the difficulty of living from paycheque to paycheque and had to cover the salaries of the unpaid employees.

FS Video

Twice. It was 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.

Otmar Szafnauer said on the High Performance podcast
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Otmar Szafnauer had ‘nothing to do’ with Oscar Piastri’s signing fiasco with Alpine

Oscar Piastri was the reserve driver for Alpine in 2022 when Fernando Alonso was driving for the team. Following the Asturian’s exit, the French constructor revealed the promotion of Piastri to the driver line-up for the 2023 season. However, the Aussie took to social media and admitted the truth, he claimed that he never signed any official deal.

Oscar Piastri (via IMAGO)
Oscar Piastri (via IMAGO)

Szafnauer recalled the fiasco and noted that he had nothing to do with not signing Piastri. The former pointed out that it was mentioned in Piastri’s contract that he could be signed as an F1 driver after the culmination of his F2 stint. However, the contractual situation for the Aussie driver was never executed by the French constructor.

I had absolutely nothing to do with not signing Oscar Piastri correctly. There was a contract after he finished his F2 career, where Alpine had an option on signing Piastri as a Formula 1 driver. That contract was never executed.

Otmar Szafnauer added
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Piastri’s performance in the past two seasons has surpassed everyone’s expectations on the grid. Hence, whatever happened might have been for the best as Piastri aims to improve his position in the 2024 drivers’ standings. Apart from this, Szafnauer will continue to focus on his ambitions to join the Formula 1 grid with an 11th team.