The appearance of Audi on the Formula 1 scene was never going to be a tokenistic move and the seriousness with which they are taking their new partnership with the Alfa Romeo/Sauber team has been emphasised by the capture of Andreas Seidl from McLaren.
Seidl, who has been team principal at Mclaren since 2019, will take over at Alfa Romeo/Sauber in January and will help guide the team over the next three years to ensure it is ready for the arrival of Audi in 2026.
It means that while Audi continues prototype work on its new hybrid engines, the team will seek to improve in other areas over the next three seasons to raise their performance. The ideal will be for the 2026 season to begin with an outstanding engine meeting the new requirements being introduced that season with a car that will perform highly in every other aspect.
The German’s arrival may come as a big blow to McLaren, whose driver Lando Norris paid tribute to Seidl by Tweeting: “I’ve never seen our team looking as strong as it is now and some of that is credit to the work you’ve done.”
As Mr Seidl arrives, Alfa Romeo/Sauber team principal Frederic Vasseur is moving to Ferrari and Andrea Stella will be the new McLaren team principal, with these moves forming part of the merry-go-round of changes in the leadership and technical teams ahead of the 2023 season.
Another significant change is the departure from Williams of technical director FX Demaison and team director Jost Capito. It marks the end of a two-year stint for Capito, who has been unable to significantly revive the fortunes of a team that boasted World Champions like Damon Hill and Jacques Villeneuve in the 1990s.This year the team finished in tenth place with just eight points, a decline from last year’s eighth-placed finish on 23 points.