With the commitment of clean-up Frédéric Vasseur, Ferrari triggered a team boss domino in Formula 1. The Scuderia poached the 54-year-old Frenchman from the partner team Alfa Romeo and finally wants to end the untitled time with him.
Shortly thereafter, the Sauber racing team, currently starting as Alfa Romeo, announced Andreas Seidl as Vasseur’s successor. The Passau native is leaving McLaren after four years with the hope of a bright future with future Sauber partner Audi.
Seidl, in turn, is replaced by the Italian Andrea Stella. The 51-year-old was most recently racing director at McLaren. He once worked at Ferrari as an engineer for record world champion Michael Schumacher.
The interplay in the racing teams had already begun the day before, when Williams surprisingly announced the resignation of the German Jost Capito (64) as team boss. His successor is still open.
Royal personnel at Ferrari clarified
On the other hand, the royal personalities at Ferrari have been clarified. Vasseur was quoted as saying in a statement that he was “delighted and honored” to get what is probably the most difficult job in Formula 1. He succeeds Mattia Binotto, who has to leave Ferrari after four hapless years at the helm.
Vasseur’s old job is being taken over by 46-year-old Seidl, who has brought McLaren back to the extended top of Formula 1 since 2019. For Seidl, the exciting prospects at the Sauber team are likely to have been the deciding factor for the unexpected change. Finally, Audi joins the Swiss Sauber racing team, and for the 2026 season, Sauber will then line up as the Audi factory team in the premier class.
The motorsport center of the Volkswagen subsidiary at the Neuburg an der Donau site is much closer to Seidl’s home than the McLaren factory in Woking, England. In addition, Seidl, as a former Porsche race director, has a VW past and previously held a managerial position at Sauber. They have “set ambitious goals together,” said Seidl.
Change of strategy by Vasseur
At Ferrari, Vasseur’s signing is a change of strategy. After the departure of Jean Todt, who together with Michael Schumacher stood for the Scuderia’s most successful Formula 1 era, all team bosses came from within the company. Stefano Domenicali, Marco Mattiaci, Maurizio Arrivabene and most recently Binotto were promoted from within their own ranks. But Ferrari has been waiting for another driver’s title since Kimi Raikkonen’s World Championship triumph in 2007, when it was still under Todt’s direction.
Vasseur is set to change that now. He wanted to “deliver for our Tifosi all over the world,” promised Vasseur. The Frenchman is scheduled to take office on January 9th. He has been team boss at Sauber since mid-2017. Previously, he had already been race director at Renault.
Vasseur has been involved in motorsport for more than 25 years and has already made a name for himself as a youth promoter. As ART team boss, he also put current Ferrari driver Charles Leclerc on the road to Formula 1. “He believed in me and we always had a good relationship,” Leclerc recently said. In 2018, the Monegasque drove his first full Formula 1 season at Sauber under Vasseur.
In the past World Cup year, Leclerc finished second behind Max Verstappen in the Red Bull. After three races, the 25-year-old was even 46 points ahead of the Dutchman. Driving mistakes, strategy failures and technical damage cost an even better result. Because of the renewed failure, team boss Binotto has to go. That triggered the chain reaction on the top post.
Message from Ferrari Message from Sauber Message from Sauber to Seidl
