(Motorsport-Total.com) – Rob Smedley has long made a name for himself in Formula 1. The Briton worked as a race engineer for Jordan, Ferrari, and Williams and supported Felipe Massa in the 2008 fight for the world championship title. However, the now 52-year-old consistently declined a role as team principal – and there is a good reason for that.
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Smedley cites the departure of Otmar Szafnauer at Aston Martin as an example. At that time, Szafnauer was largely stripped of his power by the appointment of Martin Whitmarsh as managing director. For the native Romanian, this was ultimately the reason to quit his team principal role and leave the team.
Smedley shows full understanding for this: “I would have done exactly the same and said: ‘Okay, if I’m not allowed to run everything, then I won’t do it at all,'” the Briton said in the current podcast High Performance Racing. “People like you and me, Otmar, are still offered top jobs, including as team principals.”
Dismissed Formula 1 Team Principals
“But I didn’t want to do it for exactly that reason,” the experienced Formula 1 engineer clarified. His main problem with the job: As team principal, you are responsible for everything – not only internally but especially publicly.
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“If your name is on the door, you are publicly responsible,” said Smedley. “But then you tell yourself: ‘Wait a minute, I might only be able to really control 20 to 30 percent of the team. What about the other 70 percent? I still have to stand behind it.’ That just doesn’t make sense.”
Smedley emphasized that he is fundamentally not afraid to take on a high-pressure job. However, only under one condition: He must also have the necessary control. “I think it’s absolutely right that as a team principal or CEO you are responsible for everything and take the blame when things go wrong,” the Briton made clear.
“You leave the team, resign, or get fired. I have absolutely no problem with that because then it happened under my leadership,” Smedley said. “But if you can only control half, that simply doesn’t make sense.”
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