adminROME.— Frederic Vasseur will join Ferrari as team principal in January and will be replaced by McLaren boss Andreas Seidl, who will head up Audi’s nascent Formula 1 programme at Alfa Romeo/Sauber.
The Frenchman, 54, who has been Alfa Romeo/Sauber’s managing director since 2017, will replace Mattia Binotto.
Vasseur will be charged with turning the Italian team into one capable of winning the world championship.
German Seidl, 46, has been McLaren’s team principal since 2019.
In 2022 Ferrari squandered a car that started the year as the fastest through a series of operational and reliability issues.
Ferrari chief executive officer Benedetto Vigna said: “Throughout his career, Fred has successfully combined his technical strengths as a trained engineer with a consistent ability to bring out the best in his drivers and teams.
“This approach and his leadership are what we need to push Ferrari forward with renewed energy.” Vasseur, who will join Ferrari on 9 January, said he was “delighted and honoured” to take on the leadership of Ferrari.
“As someone who has held a lifelong passion for motorsport, Ferrari has always represented the very pinnacle of the racing world to me,” he said.
“I look forward to working with the talented and truly passionate team in Maranello to honour the history and heritage of the Scuderia and deliver for our tifosi around the world.”
Vasseur’s appointment marks a clean break from Ferrari’s strategy of choosing team principals over the last decade and a half.
Since Jean Todt, who masterminded the dominant Michael Schumacher era, left at the end of 2007, Ferrari has looked from within for the leaders of their F1 operations.
Todt’s replacement Stefano Domenicali was promoted from sporting director and when he left in 2014, the new man was Marco Mattiacci, who was head of Ferrari North America. — BBC Sport.
Online Reporter