Former F1 driver and F1 commentator Martin Brundle has spoken out in light of McLaren’s Team Principle Andreas Seidl leaving the team, voicing his concern for their future going forward.
McLaren announced earlier in the week that Seidl had departed the team for a new role as Chief Executive Officer of Sauber Group, ahead of Audi’s F1 entry in 2026. He leaves after four seasons overseeing the operations of the Woking-based team, who have been on the up in recent years.
During his time at McLaren, Seidl has helped them recover after tumbling down the ranks during the turbo-hybrid era, seeing them take multiple podiums and a race win since his arrival.
However, Brundle thinks Seidl’s departure will stunt their growth – speaking to Sky Sports he voiced his concerns over the long-established team’s management changes;
“There’s no doubt about it, losing Seidl is bad news for McLaren going forward.
“He’s had a long-term relationship with the Volkswagen group with Porsche so I can understand what he’s done and I can understand why McLaren wanted to expedite that… But this is not what they needed.”
Mclaren have a new driver lineup as well as a new management lineup going into 2023; Lando Norris, who is locked in until 2025, will drive alongside rookie Oscar Piastri. Piastri replaces Daniel Ricciardo who had a disappointing two seasons with the team in 2021 and 2022.
Brundle says the drivers will also be disappointed with the departure of Seidl after the improvements made in recent years;
“The big thing for McLaren is their new wind tunnel in 2024,”
“So Lando will be looking at it thinking, ‘why has Andreas jumped ship? What has Andreas seen at Audi, that he much prefers to McLaren?’
“Oscar will be disappointed as well because he would have done all the discussions, all the imaginations, with Andreas, for Oscar to join and Lando to stay.
“Lando is very close to Zak [Brown, CEO] and he is doing a great job there, there’s a good structure at McLaren. I don’t panic in the slightest for them, but you can’t read this as good news.”
Martin Brundle