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McLaren 's Andreas Seidl believes that the 2022 season exposed key engineering deficiencies within their Formula 1 operation as they finished fifth in the standings. Having claimed fourth in 2021 and ended their near-decade long win drought at the Italian Grand Prix, McLaren were optimistic of closing the gap to the big three teams in 2022, following the introduction of new ground effect technical regulations. However, the car battled severe brake problems early in the campaign, with the team struggling to understand the MCL36 at times. In the end, a consistent hauling of points had the team in contention to snatch fourth in the Constructors' from Alpine at the final race in Abu Dhabi, but they ultimately fell 14 points short. Seidl believes that the season highlighted problems with the Woking engineering structure, something that a plan has been developed to rectify. Seidl expla...

McLaren Technical Director James Key says the pandemic has put his team 18 months behind their development curve. Key and Team Principal Andreas Seidl joined McLaren at the beginning of 2019 as the team embarked on a restructuring after an underwhelming few years that included an ill-fated engine partnership with Honda. McLaren's fortunes gradually improved from 2018 onwards, as the team's points tally increased year-on-year, ultimately scoring their first Grand Prix win since 2012 with Daniel Ricciardo's victory in the 2021 Italian Grand Prix. But the team slipped back in 2022, scoring only 159 points to 275 in 2021, and falling behind Alpine in the final Constructors' Championship, and Key lamented that the onset of the pandemic had affected McLaren 's development plans. Viewed by others: ...

Several F1 team bosses have been reflecting on Ross Brawn's legacy as he steps back from his role with the sport's management team. Brawn took the position of Formula 1’s Managing Director of Motorsports as F1 transitioned from the Bernie Ecclestone era to the ownership of Liberty Media in 2017. Since then, he has been involved in several aspects of the sport, including the introduction of new technical regulations for the 2022 season. Now, with Brawn retiring from Formula 1, some key figures from the paddock have praised what the former Ferrari man brought to the table. Steiner believes regulation changes 'biggest compliment' to Brawn Guenther Steiner, team boss at Haas, thinks that the success of the 2022 regulations is a credit to Brawn. "I think the proof was in what you asked us before: did the new regulations work or not, and we all said yes, and I think tha...

McLaren Team Principal Andreas Seidl is set to leave the Woking outfit and is poised to join Sauber in a move that should be announced imminently. TheFOXposts.Com has learned from Australian sources familiar with the matter that the German will join Sauber in the role of CEO, in a move influenced by Audi's recent strategic buy-in to the team ahead of its 2026 entry into F1 . Seidl would replace Frederic Vasseur, whose departure from Sauber is likely to be confirmed shortly. The Frenchman has been linked with the vacant Team Principal post at Ferrari, after Mattia Binotto resigned from the role last month. Seidl has previous work experience at a Volkswagen Group-run motorsport programme, having been Team Principal of Porsche's LMP1 outfit when the German marque won three Le Mans titles in a row from 2015 to 2017. The German is also known to Audi executives, including the firm's CEO Markus Duesmann, as the two previously worked together at Sauber in the 2000s,...

Even though all of the driver seats have been confirmed on the Formula 1 grid for next season, there is another silly season taking place among the Team Principals. In a week that has brought a lot of change among the management of F1 teams, here is a round- up of all the main moves, in case you missed anything. Vasseur replaces Binotto The biggest surprise was the announcement that Mattia Binotto would step down as Ferrari Team Principal and Managing Director of the Gestione Sportiva. The departure comes after Ferrari bosses John Elkann and Benedetto Vigna were unhappy after Binotto failed to lead a sustained championship push in 2022. He will be replaced by Frederic Vasseur, who announced that he would be leaving Alfa Romeo after six seasons in charge as Team Principal and CEO. Vasseur will join as Team Principal and General Manager on January 9th, 2023. As noted by Christian Hor...

Zak Brown believes Andreas Seidl's departure from the McLaren Formula 1 team has opened up "opportunities" within the race team. Seidl resigned from his post as Team Principal in December to take over as CEO of the Sauber group with Audi - a member of the Volkswagen group Seidl used to work for - set to come in for 2026. One of Seidl's first tasks is to search for a new Team Principal at the Alfa Romeo (Sauber) team, with Frederic Vasseur heading to Ferrari to replace Mattia Binotto. In Seidl's place, Brown opted to promote Andrea Stella to his first team principal role in F1 from the racing director role he'd held since 2019. And Brown believes that this decision is a strong one for McLaren that highlights the "depth" within the team. Viewed by others: ...

The Team Principal silly season may have come as a slight shock to some, as many members of senior management within teams made significant moves. One of those was the departure of Andreas Seidl from McLaren to Sauber, the former Porsche LMP1 boss seemingly going back to his former employees as they look towards their future with Audi in 2026. The plan for Seidl was to always see off his contract at McLaren, according to Brown, but now his departure to Sauber as Chief Executive Officer shows "how serious" Audi are taking F1, according to Carlos Sainz Senior. " Andreas Seidl was recently brought in as McLaren's Business manager," he said in an interview with Speedweek . "That shows me how seriously Audi is approaching the subject of Formula 1 . Seidl is a guarantee for serious work and success, he triumphed with Porsche at Le Mans, and he brought McLaren up to speed." In the period since Seidl took over in 2019, McLaren have achieved eig...

McLaren have explained how the chain of team boss changes at other teams led to Andreas Seidl making an earlier than originally planned exit from the squad. It was confirmed on 13 December that Seidl has left the outfit to join Sauber as CEO, in a move influenced by Audi's recent strategic buy-in to the team ahead of its 2026 entry into F1 . This followed on from the news that Fred Vasseur will depart his role as Team Principal at Alfa Romeo to take up the position of Team Principal and General Manager at Ferrari from 9 January. Elswhere, Jost Captio has exited Williams as CEO, with a replacement yet to be announced. At McLaren, Andrea Stella will step into Seidl's position as Team Principal, but team CEO Zak Brown has revealed that the plan had actually been in place for some time, yet was brought forward earlier than planned following the flurry of moves across the paddock. Brown...

McLaren boss Andreas Seidl has praised Lando Norris for making an " impressive " step forward in 2022. The campaign proved to be a slightly disappointing one for the team, with the Woking-based squad having lost out on P4 in the Constructors' Championship following a battle with Alpine. Norris, though, claimed the 'best of the rest' spot in the Drivers' Championship, having finished P7 behind the drivers from the top three teams. Seidl believes that Norris – who has a long-term contract with McLaren until the end of 2025 – has displayed continued signs of progress during the year, which marked his fourth season in Formula 1. Seidl: Norris clearly made another step "There were different things which were impressing me quite a lot, obviously, in terms of pure performance inside the car, even if it's not so visible in terms of results, because we simply...