Audi respond to Sauber's Seidl swoop

Ewan Gale
Tuesday 13 December 2022 12:13 - Updated: 12:17

Audi has welcomed Sauber's appointment of Andreas Seidl as CEO.

The German helped turn around McLaren's fortunes as team principal since 2019, overseeing a return to the top step of the podium and setting in stone improvements at the Woking base that will assist further growth.

But Seidl joins Sauber in January to partially fill a void left by Fred Vasseur, who will make the switch to Ferrari as successor to Mattia Binotto, who recently resigned from his post as team principal of the Scuderia. He leaves on December 30.

Seidl's first job will be to oversee the appointment of a new team principal at Alfa Romeo, which will revert to the Sauber name from 2024 onwards.

The 46-year-old has experience with the Swiss-based team as he was head of track operations at Sauber for four years during its BMW F1 guise.

Additionally, his motorsport CV boasts an incredibly successful stint as head of the Porsche LMP1 WEC programme, in which he beat Volkswagen Group sister marque Audi at Le Mans.

But ahead of Audi's tie-up with Sauber from 2026 onwards, CTO of Audi AG Oliver Hoffman said: "We welcome our future partner’s choice.

“Andreas Seidl has extensive experience in leadership roles across motorsport programs on both the manufacturer and Formula 1 team side.

"His track record in motorsport is impressive.”