Andreas Siddle leaves McLaren and takes over Audi F1

Following back-to-back announcements by Alfa Romeo that Frédéric Wasser has stepped down as race director and by Ferrari that the Frenchman will succeed Mattia Binotto in 2023, Wasser’s position at Alfa Romeo F1/Sauber is expected to become the Andreas Schidl.

Siedl is – for now – McLaren’s race manager but it appears he is also Audi’s choice to build the team that will see the German company enter Formula 1 in 2026.

We recall that at the time of the Stuttgarters’ consecutive victories in the WEC and the 24 Hours of Le Mans, Siedl was with full success Porsche’s race director – therefore he has the full trust and affection of the Volkswagen Group, which owns Audi and Porsche.

Audi builds its engine plant in Neuburg, Germany, while the team’s chassis will continue to be built at Sauber’s plant in Heinville, Switzerland. The Germans are also to buy the majority of shares in Sauber over the next three years, which will keep the name Alfa Romeo F1 until the end of 2023, then be called Sauber and be renamed Audi F1 from 2026.

After leaving Porsche, Andreas Siddle has been McLaren’s director of racing for the last four years, having been selected for the position by McLaren boss Zach Brown and announced by the Woking team in May 2019.

He managed to make the team relatively competitive again and took them to 3rd place in the league in 2020 but failed to make them championship worthy. With quite a bit of luck, he only had one win in Monza in 2021 with Daniel Ricciardo.

Siddle’s looming departure from McLaren is the race leader’s fourth departure from as many teams in the past three weeks, following yesterday’s announcement of the end of Williams’ partnership with Jost Kapito.

These “musical chairs” at the highest level have been left out by Mattia Binotto, who resigned from Ferrari at the end of November. However, the Italian is well regarded in F1 and a potential offer from McLaren – for Siddle’s position – could look quite attractive for the Italian, and perhaps McLaren as well.

As for Alfa Romeo/Sauber, he laid the first and important foundation for the transformation into Audi F1: he handed over the management – apparently since there was no official announcement yet – to a man of the absolute trust of Audi and the VW group, to rebuild and expand the team with the investment from Wolfsburg.

It is significant what the Hineville team’s announcement of Vasser’s departure said: “Frederick Vasser is leaving the team strengthened with new partners, increased manpower and a bright future as a factory team with a manufacturer in the not too distant future.”

And Wasser emphasized, among other things: “I’m proud of the work we’ve done together as a team and as a company, and particularly the strong foundations we’ve laid for what is to come. I know Alfa Romeo will only keep going from strength to strength and I look forward to it. “I look forward to seeing them in action at the top in the years to come.”