'Seidl to leave McLaren and succeed Vasseur at Alfa Romeo'

With Fred Vasseur officially leaving for Ferrari to succeed Mattia Binotto, Andreas Seidl appears to be the leading candidate to take over as team boss at Alfa Romeo. This makes Seidl the fourth Formula 1 team boss in a short time to step down. After managing McLaren for four years, he is said to take up a role in Audi's F1 project.

Seidl is said to have made the choice to play a role in Audi's entry into F1, reports Speedcafe.com. In doing so, the German would turn his back on McLaren after leading the team for four years. Audi announced plans earlier this year to debut its own powerplant in the 2026 season, in partnership with Sauber.

Audi has long considered joining motorsport's premier class, but left it dependent on whether it found the 2026 technical regulations acceptable. Among other things, those regulations abolish the MGU-K, a measure designed to lower entry costs for new manufacturers like Audi.

Seidl already has some experience with the brand: during his time at Porsche, he worked under the Volkswagen-Audi group. There, he was team boss of the Stuttgart-based brand's World Endurance Championship team, with which the 919 Hybrid won three titles in a row from 2015. The team won the 24 Hours of Le Mans from 2015 to 2017.

Seidl has been a key player at McLaren since coming to F1 in 2019 and, together with CEO Zak Brown, has played a leading role in stabilising the team. He was also instrumental in contracting Oscar Piastri for 2023, a deal that came about partly thanks to Seidl's relationship with Mark Webber through the Porsche WEC programme and Williams before that.

There is no official announcement for now, but it looks very much like Seidl will take over from Vasseur as Alfa Romeo's team boss. BBC has confirmed that the German will lead the Audi and Sauber programme ahead of Audi's entry into Formula 1.