Alfred Neubauer

Racing manager of the Mercedes Benz Grand Prix team from 1926 to 1955, the man who invented the modern pit board

Alfred Neubauer

Racing manager of the Mercedes Benz Grand Prix team from 1926 to 1955, the man who invented the modern pit board

Alfred Neubauer worked as chief tester for Ferdinand Porsche at Austro Daimler and followed him to Stuttgart in 1923. Having concluded that he would never be a great racing driver, he created a new job for himself in 1926: racing team manager. Drivers of the day often had no idea of their position during a race, so he devised a system of flags and boards to tell them. Teams have been signaling from the pit wall ever since.

He drilled his pit crews hard and ran the Silver Arrows through their prewar dominance. Mercedes returned to Grands Prix in 1954 and again set the pace, carrying Juan Manuel Fangio to the title that year and the next. He died in 1980.

Teams led

Scroll to Top