F1's team principal silly season: winners and losers
The 2022 F1 season is supposed to be over, but it appears to be a gift that keeps on giving. The latest iteration of it is a case of musical chairs between F1 Team Principals.
To recap, it all started with Mattia Binotto resigning from his role at Ferrari. We also recently had Jost Capito announcing his departure from Williams. Then on Tuesday, Fred Vasseur started off the game of musical chairs. First, Vasseur announced his departure from Alfa Romeo. Shortly after, Ferrari announced Vasseur's arrival as their team principal. While this was more or less expected to happen, the shock came right afterwards as Andreas Seidl's departure from McLaren was announced, with Seidl taking up the role of CEO at Sauber instead.
In the end, next year we will see Andreas Seidl at Alfa Romeo, Andrea Stella at McLaren and Fred Vasseur at Ferrari while Williams figures out who replaces Jost Capito. So, in this Russian roulette of team principals, who won and who lost out? Let's take a look.
Winner
Alfa Romeo/Audi
Alfa Romeo/Audi might just have scored the biggest bounty in all of this and it did it at the very last moment. Andreas Seidl's history of working with the Volkswagen Group was something that helped McLaren secure Oscar Piastri and it was something that has seen him shift bases.
Andreas Seidl joins the Sauber Group as Chief Executive Officer, starting in Jan 2023.
He will be tasked with continuing the growth of the group as Sauber keeps establishing itself as one of the brightest sporting, industrial entities around.
Story: sauber-group.com/motorsport/f1-… https://t.co/Lm0RTaGWYW
His stint at McLaren has been very impressive. Under his leadership, the team is back to scoring podiums, even securing pole position and winning a race last year. Getting that kind of proven talent in your ranks and luring him away from McLaren shows not only intent, but it also shows that the German giant is already making moves 3 years before it even starts competing in F1. As we know, Audi recently announced that it is acquiring 75% of Sauber Motorsport AG, with the intent to race in 2026. In case anyone forgot, Audi is here gentlemen, and it means business.
Loser
McLaren
Andrea Seidl's exit is a sucker punch for McLaren if there ever was any. The team is on the verge of doing some great things in F1. Firmly leading the midfield group, a few crucial tweaks should propel the team to the top. Andreas Seidl's decision to jump ship now is the biggest thumbs down to the McLaren project because if there was optimism on that front, he would not have left.
McLaren now has an important task of restabilizing at the moment, and it will be very interesting to see where the team finds itself next season.
Winner
Frederic Vasseur
With the Audi takeover imminent, Frederic Vasseur's F1 future was in the doldrums. Audi was going to put their representative in a senior position (that person turned out to be Andreas Seidl) and that would have left Vasseur without a job if he had not acted swiftly.
Scuderia Ferrari announces that Fred Vasseur will join Scuderia Ferrari on 9 January as Team Principal and General Manager.
ferrari.com/en-EN/corporat… https://t.co/L882T0gHsl
In all of this, it does appear that Vasseur did exactly that and got the deal done with Ferrari, one that makes him the team principal of the most illustrious brand in F1. Sure, Ferrari is a revolving door for team principals but leading the Scuderia is a temptation not many could decline.
Loser
Ferrari
Although it is self-inflicted in a lot of ways and it was Ferrari's decision to change their team principal, this move is going to hurt. Binotto was not only handling the typical team principal job, but he was also managing the technical aspect as well.
In essence, Ferrari needed two personnel to replace Binotto but since that has not been the case, there will be a question mark over the decision-making of the team in the short term. The Italian team might have to take one step back before taking two steps forward but will they have the patience to do that? We'll have to wait and see.
Winner
Andreas Seidl
8 podiums and 1 win. Thank you, Andreas. 👊 https://t.co/2KbwqCf8GU
A career move that sees you transition from a team principal role at McLaren to the CEO of Audi is a winner in all aspects. Seidl knew what the ceiling was at McLaren with Zak Brown at the top. He's made the move to the German marque and in all likelihood will be spearheading its entry into F1. Seidl has been a VW group loyalist for a long time and this is an opportunity he always deserved. Now it is up to him to do the best he can with it.
Loser
Williams
Williams is not an F1 team a driver would want to be at right now. The team was finally able to show signs of recovery, scoring good points in 2021 and 2022. The next step was progressing further after years of rebuilding with Jost Capito at the top.
Well, Capito is gone! So is the team's technical director. It is hard to see Williams with any sort of confidence right now and drivers like Alex Albon and Logan Sargeant will be having a hard time figuring out what the future looks like for the team.