F1's team boss shake-up: the principals moving in 2023

F1

Frédéric Vasseur has been revealed as Ferrari's new team boss, with a raft of other principal changes announced up and down the grid for 2023

Ferrari F1 team boss Frederic Vasseur

Vasseur will now head up F1's most iconic team

Ferrari

Formula 1’s transfer season created plenty of headlines this year amid contract wranglings and driver defections, and it has continued into December with a flurry of new winter signings — involving team principals.

The morning of December 13 saw grand prix musical chairs in full swing as former Alfa boss Frédéric Vasseur was announced as the new Ferrari team principal in place of the ousted Mattia Binotto. Shortly afterwards, his replacement was revealed to be McLaren’s team leader, Andreas Seidl, who will take Alfa Romeo into the Audi era, which begins in 2026.

Simultaneously, McLaren issued a statement that its executive director of racing, Andrea Stella, would move up to become the new team principal.

And still the music plays on, with a vacancy left at Williams after the the Grove team announced Jost Capito the previous day.

Read on below for the full rundown on who is moving where:

 

Ferrari: Mattia Binotto out, Frédéric Vasseur in

2 Ferrari F1 team boss Frederic Vasseur

Binotto has been replaced by Vasseur at Ferrari

DPPI

After a 2022 season which promised so much at the start, the year could hardly have ended much worse for Ferrari boss Mattia Binotto.

The F1-75 penned under his stewardship had race-winning performance from the start and clear potential for even more pace, but reliability issues, strategic blunders and driver errors sent the Scuderia’s 2022 awry as it clung on to second in the championship. Rumours began to swirl regarding Binotto’s position from mid-season as a result.

News of his “resignation” then came through in late November, with Binotto saying he was leaving “a strong team, ready, I’m sure, to achieve the highest goals”. Left unsaid was the clear implication that his employers of 28 years didn’t feel the Italian was fit to lead it to a championship.

Ferrari has turned to former Alfa Romeo boss Frédéric Vasseur who, at Hinwil, has in some ways addressed the elements Binotto didn’t at Ferrari. Getting a lot from a limited budget following jis appointment in 2017, Vasseur turned the failing Sauber team into a solid midfield outfit again, particularly under its Alfa guise.

Like Binotto at Ferrari, Vasseur appears well-liked at the Swiss team and the operational efficiency he has instilled into it is clearly something the Scuderia covets. As with Ferrari, Alfa also suffered numerous technical failures this year – though some were down to its Ferrari engine.

“Throughout his career he has successfully combined his technical strengths as a trained engineer with a consistent ability to bring out the best in his drivers and teams,” Ferrari CEO Benedetto Vigna said pointedly of Vasseur. “This approach and his leadership are what we need to push Ferrari forward with renewed energy.”

 

McLaren: Andreas Seidl out, Andrea Stella in

Zak Brown with Andreas Seidl

Zak Brown is now looking for a new team principal

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Andreas Seidl joined McLaren in 2019 as part of its long-term project to get back to the front but has now departed for his former employers, the VW group.

The German has been key to the rejuvenation of the Zak Brown’s squad, overseeing a fourth-place constructors’ finish in his first season before the team beat Ferrari and Renault for a brilliant third in 2020. Daniel Ricciardo then scored McLaren a first win in nine years at Monza the following year.

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Though the team slipped back slightly to fifth this season just gone, its driver Lando Norris was the only one outside the big three of Red Bull/Ferrari/Mercedes to achieve a podium in 2022.

Seidl formerly headed up Porsche’s LMP1 WEC squad, and has now apparently been lured back to lead sister brand Audi’s new F1 operation, which will be officially branded as a works squad from 2026.

Woking was quick to announce Seidl’s replacement in the form of Andrea Stella. Formerly a race engineer for Michael Schumacher and Kimi Räikkönen at Ferrari, the Italian has been McLaren’s executive director of racing since 2019, having initially joined in 2015.

“His move into this role is a great example of the strength in depth we have in our team,” said Zak Brown.

That depth has been reduced by the departure of Seidl, who was identified by Brown as one of the crucial hirings he made when joining the team. However, he also classed Stella among the select group.

“I would say that the the reason why we’re having success today is is getting the right people in place: Andreas Seidl [team principal], James Key [technical director], Andrea Stella [racing director and Piers [Thynne, operations director] have done an awesome job and that’s just on the racing side,” said Brown on Motor Sport’s ‘My big break’ podcast in January.

“I think I built a really strong leadership team that are doing a great job leading. Out of 800-900 people, I changed ten key ones but I think those 10 people have made a huge difference.”

 

Alfa Romeo/Audi: Frédéric Vasseur out, Andreas Seidl in

Alfa-ROmeo-F1-driver-Valtteri-Bottas-at-the-2022-Singapore-GP-4

Vasseur has galvanised Alfa in its rise up the grid

DPPI

In 2022 Hinwil achieved its best constructors’ result in a decade with sixth, helped much in part by the sound operational practice combined with positive atmosphere boss Frédéric Vasseur brought to the team.

The Frenchman came to Sauber in 2017 after the squad had struggled for a number of seasons. Renewing relations with Ferrari, primarily in the form of an engine deal, helped the Swiss squad fight back.

The team’s reaction to his departure indicated the high esteem in which he is held.

“Progress on and off track was followed by a growing sense of confidence in Hinwil: confidence that this team could once again be at the sharp end of the grid; confidence that things would get better season after season; confidence that top talent would once again flourish,” it said.

“This all stemmed from Fred’s own sense of confidence: not in himself, but in the project that was presented to him in 2017 – a project in which he was one of the first to believe.”

Now Andreas Seidl, who knows the VW group well from his time as Porsche LMP1 team principal, comes in to try and continue the progress Vasseur initiated and prepare for Audi’s partnership with the team from 2026.

As CEO, he will only take on half of Vasseur’s previous role. The German will have to recruit a team boss to run trackside operations as Seidl oversees the entire project.

 

Williams: Jost Capito out

Jost Capito with Dorilton Capital chairman Matthew Savage at the 2022 Bahrain Grand Prix

Capito has been shown the door by Dorilton

Florent Gooden / DPPI

The overall atmosphere at Williams appeared to have improved through the last two seasons over which Jost Capito has presided, but team owner Dorilton Ventures appears to have decided that the results simply weren’t good enough.

There was an uplift in results in 2021 when the German took over, 23 points –including a podium from George Russell at the rain-shortened Belgian GP – meaning it finished eighth in the constructors’ table.

An unsuccessful effort with its 2022 car though means that Williams has now slipped to the back of the grid once more. Despite some impressive performances from new signing Alex Albon, eight points was all it could muster.

Dorilton has now decided it’s time for a change but, after releasing someone of Capito’s considerable expertise, who can help lift Williams off rock bottom?