The departure of Mattia Binotto as Ferrari’s team principal has sparked a shift in team principals across several teams. Now we’ve got Fred Vasseur at Ferrari, Andreas Seidl leaving McLaren for Sauber, and Andrea Stella replacing Seidl at McLaren, and Jost Capito leaving Williams. 

Vasseur at Ferrari

It was rumoured that Frederic Vasseur would replace Binotto as Ferrari’s team principal and it turns out those rumours were true. Binotto was pushed out of the organisation by Ferrari bosses, John Elkann and Benedetto Vigna, after he was unable to take home the championship in 2022. 

Frederic Vasseur was the favourite to replace Binotto as he has a wealth of experience. He’s led several F1 teams including Renault (now Alpine) and Alfa Romeo, the latter of which he played an instrumental part in their recovery. Not to mention that he has an existing relationship with Ferrari driver, Charles Leclerc, who many hope will be able to win the championship in 2023. 

Andreas Seidl at Sauber & Andrea Stella at McLaren

Former McLaren team principal, Andreas Seidl, is stepping down to take the CEO position at Sauber (Alfa Romeo) to assist in the Audi acquisition. To replace Seidl, McLaren have brought in Andrea Stella. 

McLaren boss, Zak Brown, revealed that Seidl had intended to leave the team when his contract expired at the end of 2025. However, with Vasseur’s surprise departure from Alfa Romeo, Seidl had requested to leave early, which was agreed to. 

As a result, Brown asked Stella to takeover. Stella had already joined McLaren in 2015 as Head of Operations, before being appointed Performance Director in 2018, then Executive Director in 2019. 

According to Brown, everything was agreeable and amicable as Seidl had made the team aware of his intentions early which allowed Brown to ask Stella if he was keen on the team principal position with ample time before the 2023 season. 

As Brown put it, “My reaction was, if Andrea [Stella] 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.

“So I went about having a conversation with Andrea, pre him having any awareness that Andreas [Seidl] was going to move on for the ’26 season. 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, so that all came together quite rapidly.”

Jost Capito Retiring

Jost Capito announced his retirement from motorsport, something he had been intending to do before he was asked to take on the team principal role at Williams. A new replacement for Capito has yet to be announced. 

Alongside Capito, Technical Director, “FX” Demaison, is leaving after being with the team for a year, as well as Aerodynamics Director, David Wheater, who spent nine years with the team.