Whilst the season might have officially finished a few weeks ago now, the off-track action certainly hasn’t stopped, with Ferrari seemingly dominating the headlines.
Following a turbulent season filled with strategic blunders, reliability issues, and driver errors, it was speculated at the season finale in Abu Dhabi that team principal Mattia Binotto would be sacked from the Scuderia, something they denied.
Fast forward three weeks and Binotto has resigned from the role and the team completely, with his replacement having already been announced.
Alfa Romeo team principal Frederic Vasseur has been appointed as the Italians new boss, something ex-F1 driver Martin Brundle believes could cause the team issues in the “short term” with him not starting until January.
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“I’m not quite sure why Ferrari would choose now to have a month without a boss,” Brundle told Sky Sports.
“I do think they should have given Binotto more time.
“If I was Mercedes or Red Bull right now, I’d be smiling because continuity is everything.
“As Formula 1 seasons get longer and more intense, you have to be careful of these sea changes of personnel.
“Mercedes have got real continuity, as have Red Bull in key personnel. Fred Vasseur has got to go in and find his way, get established, understand, and it’s a tall order.
“It doesn’t matter who you are, it’s going to take time unless you are a part of the fabric like [former boss Stefano] Domenicali was and like Binotto has been.
“It is such a fundamental change and it will destabilise them in the short term, it has to. Everybody will be slightly off balance thinking, where do they stand, and what’s next. They’ll be in limbo.”
With Vasseur moving to Ferrari, McLaren team principal Andreas Seidl has switched to Sauber to become their new CEO, a role that Vasseur held alongside his team principal gig.
Seidl switching back to Sauber is bad news for McLaren; according to Brundle; however, the popular pundit does “understand” why the German has returned to his former employer.
“There’s no doubt about it, losing Seidl is bad news for McLaren going forward,” said Brundle.
“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.”
Brundle added that he is also concerned for Lando Norris and Oscar Piastri, with Piastri in particular having likely held serious discussions with the new Sauber CEO prior to his move to the Woking-based team.
“The big thing for McLaren is their new wind tunnel in 2024,” added Brundle.
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“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 [Piastri, new signing] 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) 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.”