Alfa Romeo has confirmed Frederic Vasseur will leave the team next month.
Vasseur is expected to take over as Ferrari team principal. He will replace Mattia Binotto, whose departure was announced earlier this month.
Binotto stepped down after four seasons leading Ferrari following their disappointing end to the 2022 season, which saw the team’s early championship challenge fade over the year due to reliability problems, poor strategy calls and multiple mistakes made in the pit lane.
Ferrari driver Charles Leclerc raced for Vasseur’s Sauber team during his rookie year in Formula 1 in 2019. Speaking at the recent FIA prize giving gala prior to Vasseur’s confirmation, Leclerc said that he has “always had a good relationship” with him.
Vassuer has been team principal of Sauber – who compete under Alfa Romeo’s branding – since joining in mid-2017. Sauber enjoyed their best championship finish under Vassuer this season, securing sixth place in the constructors’ championship ahead of Aston Martin on countback after finishing the year equal on points.
Vasseur said he can “look back fondly at these six years” he has spent at Sauber. “I owe a debt of gratitude to every single employee of the team, as they are the ones who got this team back on their feet and climbing the ladder of our sport.
“I am proud of the job we collectively have done as a team and a company, and even more so of the strong foundations we have laid for what’s to come next: but what I am the proudest of is the people that made this all possible, which in time have become friends. This team will always feel like home and I’ll be rooting for it wherever I go.”
Sauber board chairman Finn Rausing thanked Vasseur for “six years of inspiring leadership and hard work, helping rebuild our company and our team.”
“He was able to encourage every one of us into giving our best and the increasingly good results we have enjoyed are testament to the quality of his performance at the helm of the team,” said Rausing. “He was the first to believe in our project and he leaves a team in a much stronger, healthier position than when he arrived, with a bright future ahead of us, which is all that could have been asked of him.
“I am sure I echo everyone in the team when I wish Fred every success in his future endeavours.”
Sauber did not indicate when it plans to announce who Vasseur’s replacement will be.
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