Formula One’s silly season became even more chaotic, but this time, it wasn’t the drivers who triggered it. The team principals brought the mayhem.
Whether you want to call it musical chairs or a merry-go-round, dominoes began to fall this week in a manner that impacted 40% of the grid. Although Williams’s announcement of Jost Capito stepping aside came on Monday, the moves that involved Ferrari, Alfa Romeo and McLaren on Tuesday seemed to be connected (to an extent).
McLaren Racing CEO Zak Brown revealed to select media on Tuesday that Andreas Seidl’s departure was fast-tracked because of Frédéric Vasseur’s move to Ferrari in January. Seidl’s contract with McLaren was until the end of the 2025 campaign, and with Audi set to join in ’26, he had informed Brown of his intention to move to the outfit at the end of his contract. Seidl has a history with the Volkswagen Group, and the team is set to transition to an Audi works group in ’26.
