McLaren Team Principal Andreas Seidl is set to leave the Woking outfit and is poised to join Sauber in a move that should be announced imminently.
RacingNews365.com has learned from Australian sources familiar with the matter that the German will join Sauber in the role of CEO, in a move influenced by Audi’s recent strategic buy-in to the team ahead of its 2026 entry into F1.
Seidl would replace Frederic Vasseur, whose departure from Sauber is likely to be confirmed shortly. The Frenchman has been linked with the vacant Team Principal post at Ferrari, after Mattia Binotto resigned from the role last month.
Seidl has previous work experience at a Volkswagen Group-run motorsport programme, having been Team Principal of Porsche’s LMP1 outfit when the German marque won three Le Mans titles in a row from 2015 to 2017.
The German is also known to Audi executives, including the firm’s CEO Markus Duesmann, as the two previously worked together at Sauber in the 2000s, when the Swiss-based team was run under the aegis of BMW.
Should Seidl leave McLaren, he would be the third Team Principal to leave his post in less than a month, with Jost Capito standing down from Williams at the end of his two-year contract in addition to Binotto having left Ferrari.
It is unclear who might replace Seidl at McLaren, but Capito is not thought to be in the running.
The ex-Williams man briefly served as CEO at the Woking outfit in 2016, before being replaced by incumbent Zak Brown after just four months at the helm.
