In order to succeed Mattia Binotto at Ferrari, Fred Vasseur will be stepping down from his position as Team Principal at Alfa Romeo McLaren.
According to Sauber, which will become Audi’s factory team in 2026, Seidl will focus on appointing the team’s new Team Principal once he is in place.
Seidl gets back to Sauber, having functioned as Head of Trackside Activities there for a considerable length of time. As Team Principal for Porsche, he went on to win numerous World Endurance Championship titles before joining McLaren in 2019.
“It is perfect to join the Sauber Gathering from January: Seidl said, “This is a team with a long history in Formula One, and I know a lot about it because I worked and lived in Hinwil for four years.”
I am eager to join the team and collaborate with all of my colleagues at the Sauber Group on the ambitious objectives we have established. I would like to express my gratitude to Finn Rausing and the entire Sauber Group for making this decision: I am eager to earn their confidence with my work.
Finn Rausing, the Chairman of the Board of Directors of Sauber Holding AG, stated: It is a colossal joy to invite Andreas Seidl back to Hinwil as Chief of the Sauber Gathering. Andreas’ experience is top notch and he brings to Sauber Gathering a reasonable comprehension of what is expected to make supported progress.
However, they have done a remarkable job of responding by luring Andreas Seidl back to Hinwil.
During his four years in charge, Seidl has made McLaren a strong midfield team with the potential to return to the top of Formula One. He was well-liked at McLaren and regarded favorably by many in the pits.
As Sauber strengthens the operation ahead of the arrival of Audi in 2026, when the German manufacturer is set to make Sauber their factory team, his F1 experience and expertise running Porsche will be invaluable.
Seidl will be able to concentrate on the overall strategy of the Sauber Group, which has a successful technologies arm, while the new Team Principal will be able to solely run the team, so splitting Vasseur’s role makes sense as well.
This kind of crazy merry-go-round involves Formula 1 team principals in the way that it has this week, which is much more uncommon.
As Otmar Szafnauer’s move from Aston Martin to Alpine last winter demonstrated, top management changes in Formula One are not uncommon. However, the fact that four teams will have new team managers next season is quite extreme.
In fact, it’s hard to remember a day that was as crazy as this one, when McLaren promoted Andrea Stella to replace Andreas Seidl and Ferrari confirmed Fred Vasseur as the new team principal.
Although Ferrari, Alfa Romeo, McLaren, and Williams all made changes this week as a result of slightly different circumstances, one thing unites them all: It’s the fact that in F1’s cost-cap era, the team boss is held accountable more than ever before.
Even just a few years ago, one of the team principals’ primary responsibilities included going to the company board, or parent automobile manufacturer, and attempting to obtain the necessary funding to complete the job properly.
And the best way to get things sorted was to ask for a second check so that a team could spend its way to better performance if the goal was to move up the grid, reverse a potential decline, or correct a flawed car concept.
However, those times are long gone. With the financial plan cap set up, F1 is at this point not a spending contest where errors can be concealed with additional money.
Instead, now efficiency, discipline, a well-thought-out strategy, and, most importantly, intelligence are what matter.
There is no longer a way to claim that rivals are performing better because they have larger budgets because of finite budgets, which are identical up and down the grid.
Now everyone has the same thing. Therefore, if you screw it up, it’s only your fault.
In today’s Formula One, team leaders are more accountable than ever before for ensuring that goals are being met on time.
In the case of Jost Capito, the decision was made not to continue working with Williams and his tech signing FX Demaison because Williams had not produced the progress that owner Dorilton Capital had anticipated during the era of F1’s new rules.
Mattia Binotto resigned after Ferrari CEO Benedetto Vigna and chairman John Elkann lost faith in him due to their belief that Maranello had not performed to its full potential during the 2022 campaign.
In both Ferrari’s decision to hire Vasseur and Sauber’s decision to hire Seidl as CEO, senior management figures who are well-versed in this cost-cutting mindset are the trend.