New team bosses for Ferrari, McLaren, Alfa Romeo and Williams
Ferrari
So new team bosses for Ferrari and McLaren. Ferrari recently said goodbye to Mattia Binotto. After 28 years at the red racing stable, including the past three as team boss, it appeared that the 53-year-old Italian did not have enough confidence to continue. Under his leadership, last season went disastrously: the car proved insufficiently reliable and the team made many tactical mistakes.
Rumors of a move by Red Bull team boss Christian Horner appear to be unfounded: Ferrari has appointed Fréderic Vasseur as its successor. This Frenchman has already worked with Charles Leclerc in recent years at Alfa Romeo Sauber. A man of stature in the paddock. Before finding his niche in Formula 1, he co-founded the ART Grand Prix team, which in Formula 2 and 3 produced such champions as Lewis Hamilton, Nico Rosberg and George Russell, among others.
Alfa Romeo Sauber
The Alfa Romeo Sauber team already has Vasseur’s successor in place. Team boss Andreas Seidl is leaving McLaren to work for the racing stable of drivers Valtteri Bottas and Guanyu Zhou. Seidl is seen as a key man behind McLaren’s resurgence in recent years. In the shortened 2020 corona season, the team even finished third in the World Constructors’ Championship.
Sauber will still go through 2023 as Alfa Romeo. From 2026, however, the team will be renamed Audi, with the German manufacturer also building its own engines. With his appointment, Seidl looks set to become the first team boss of the Audi factory team.
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New team boss: McLaren
With the departure of Andreas Seidl, McLaren quickly put forward Andrea Stella as the new team boss. The 51-year-old Italian first earned his spurs as racing engineer to Michael Schumacher and Kimi Raikkonen at Ferrari. In 2015, he switched to McLaren, where he has led the racing department since 2019.
New team boss for Williams?
Williams also needs to find a new team owner. Jost Capito has decided to step down after two seasons. “It was a true privilege to lead this team and usher in the turnaround of the successful team,” Capito said in a statement. Technical director François-Xavier Demaison is also leaving the team. Even though Williams scored much better than past seasons with 31 World Cup points, the team finished at the bottom of the World Cup rankings. Not even the handsome ninth place of substitute Nyck de Vries could change that.
Who the successors to Capito and Demaison will be is not yet known.
