Change at Ferrari hastened Seidl's McLaren exit

LONDON :McLaren appointed Andrea Stella as Formula One team principal on Tuesday in a move hastened by his predecessor Andreas Seidl joining Sauber as replacement for Ferrari-bound Frederic Vasseur.

Sauber run the Alfa Romeo team, which will become the factory Audi outfit in 2026.

The post-season management merry-go-round came after Mattia Binotto handed in his resignation as Ferrari team principal in November.

Stella worked with world champions Michael Schumacher, Kimi Raikkonen and Fernando Alonso in 15 years at Ferrari under bosses Jean Todt and Stefano Domenicali before joining McLaren in 2019 at the same time as Seidl.

The Italian was promoted from an executive director role at McLaren and chief executive Zak Brown said Stella was first choice after Seidl told the team earlier in the year that he would not be extending his contract.

"Andreas in a very transparent manner informed me during the season that he was going to go elsewhere when his contract was up at the end of 2025," the American told reporters on a video call with Stella.

"Probably pretty clear where that destination would be, which was quite understandable given his background."

Seidl was previously head of track operations at Sauber and was also principal of Porsche's world endurance team that won the Le Mans 24 Hours three times between 2015-17.

Porsche and Audi are both Volkswagen-owned brands.

Brown said McLaren would have continued with Seidl to the end of his contract but events took a twist when it became clear Vasseur was going to Ferrari.

"(Sauber chairman) Finn Rausing, 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," he explained.

"My