The Pit Wall Merry-Go-Round: Why Team Principals Are Now Disposable Commodities

There's been a sea change when it comes to the pit wall bosses
11:36, 14 Dec 2022

Formula One is no stranger to a merry-go-round. Just this year we saw how the competition for places on the 20-man grid led to drivers being fired and hired like disposable commodities. Daniel Ricciardo is now a reserve driver at Red Bull, Oscar Piastri has signed with McLaren after a tussle with Alpine and Haas swapped Mick Schumacher for Nico Hulkenberg. 

But it isn’t just the drivers that have been swapping seats this winter. This week Ferrari announced that former Alfa Romeo team principal Fred Vasseur would be joining them following the dismissal of Mattia Binotto and in doing so they set off a chain reaction of their own. 

They pinched McLaren’s head honcho Andreas Seidl for a CEO role, leaving McLaren to promote Andrea Stella to replace him. Few saw this chain of events coming and now it means that four teams will have new team principals as we head into 2023. 

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This relatively new trend of replacing team principals like football managers seems strange, but when you consider the new budget caps, the reasoning starts to come together. Previously, the bosses could argue that their rivals were ahead of them, because they had spent more money. That excuse won’t wash anymore, given all teams have to adhere to the same budget restrictions. 

Well, everyone except Red Bull of course. 

If a team such as Ferrari are seen to underperform on what they could have delivered, they will make the change. It’s becoming more like football in that sense, and now these team principals will be fully aware that their heads are on the chopping block if they underperform in 2023. 

Binotto may have ‘resigned’ but it was clear that those above him at Ferrari did not trust him following the strategy errors and sequence of cock-ups on the pit-wall in 2022. But their decision to plump for Vasseur seems to be a sensible one, led by that cost cap performance. 

Alfa Romeo and Vasseur performed reasonably well last term but it has been his ability to get the best out of his drivers that he has at his disposal that has seen him get the top job at Ferrari. However, his title is not exactly the same as Binotto’s, which could see a shift in the way the team operates. 

Vasseur’s title is team principal and general manager, whereas Binotto’s was team principal and managing director. This wording would seem to suggest that the new boss will be more hands on when it comes to managing staff while CEO Benedetto Vigna may be more involved in the F1 team than we have previously seen before. 

Ferrari’s appointment makes sense on paper, but Alfa Romeo may have played a blinder. The long-standing good relationship between Vasseur and owner Finn Rausing meant that the team principal was honest about Ferrrari’s approach, and Rausing wouldn’t stand in his way. But what this transparency also meant was that Alfa Romeo were able to act quickly and decisively in poaching a replacement. 

Seidl has done a phenomenal job in McLaren’s recent turnaround as their team principal and has now been brought back into the Sauber group with this move. Now, he seems set to oversee Audi’s arrival into the sport in 2026, as they take over the Sauber brand in four years time. It’s a big job, but he is a man who has already proven that he is up to the task. But his first point of order in the short-term at Alfa Romeo, is to find a team principal who follows his beliefs and will work closely under him. 

All of these changes, and McLaren’s decision to promote from within, means 2023 will be well worth watching for the pit wall drama, not just the racing on track. 

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