Zak Brown has revealed that Andreas Seidl was always intending to leave the McLaren F1 Team at the end of his contract, but his move away from the team was fast-tracked following the Team Principal merry-go-round that has occurred since the end of the 2022 FIA Formula 1 World Championship season.
Seidl’s departure from McLaren was announced on Tuesday, with the German subsequently being announced as the CEO of the Sauber Group. Andrea Stella was also announced by McLaren as their new Team Principal ahead of the 2023 season.
Seidl was set to join Audi Sport – which will merge with Sauber ahead of the 2026 season – once his McLaren contract ended at the end of 2025, but when Frédéric Vasseur announced that he would be leaving Sauber/Alfa Romeo F1 Team ORLEN to join Scuderia Ferrari as their new Team Principal for next season, talks between McLaren and Sauber owner Finn Rausing began about possibly bringing in Seidl immediately.
Brown revealed that positive talks with Stella about taking over the reigns at McLaren meant it was easy for the team to allow Seidl to depart, with all parties remaining on good terms throughout the discussions.
“[Andreas] informed me during the season that he was going to go elsewhere when his contract was up at the end of 2025,” Brown is quoted as saying by Motorsport.com. “[It was] probably pretty clear where that destination would be, which was quite understandable, given his background.
“At that time, we intended to continue for the foreseeable future, because the relationship is very, very healthy. And his work discipline is very strong. What we were going to do at that point was, at the end of the season, let the world know that that change would come in at the end of the ’25 season.
“And, after we intended to go public, the first person I was going to call to see if they would lead McLaren’s F1 team is the gentleman sitting next to me, Andrea [Stella] – but not at that point, being sure whether that would be something that he would consider.
“When it became clear that Fred was going to go to Ferrari, Finn Rausing, who is someone that I’ve known for a decade, and get along with very well, gave me a call to see if there was a discussion to be had to potentially release Andreas early.
“My reaction was, if Andrea would be happy to join as team principal, then I’d be very happy to make that change now, which I think puts everyone in their permanent homes for the foreseeable future.”
“After some good conversations, Andrea kindly accepted the role, which then put us in a very comfortable position to move forward. Because Andrea was always our number one choice to lead the team moving forward, that all came together quite rapidly.”
Brown says there was never any intention of putting Seidl on ‘gardening leave’, meaning he is free to join the Sauber Group as their new CEO in January once Vasseur makes the move to Ferrari.
“We have a great relationship,” Brown said of Seidl. “I know a lot of teams play the gardening leave card.
“But I think, as we’ve demonstrated at McLaren, there are ways to dissolve relationships, whether that’s with racing drivers, or employees, where you can do things on very workable terms for everyone.”
