Andreas Seidl leaving McLaren is 'bad news' for Lando Norris and new recruit Oscar Piastri, feels F1 pundit

In the unprecedented shake-up of team principals and CEOs that took place earlier this week, McLaren boss Andreas Seidl left the team to take over the reins at Sauber starting in January 2023.

F1 pundit Martin Brundle believes the change is unfavorable for the team's drivers Lando Norris and Oscar Piastri. The German was appointed team principal of the Woking-based team in May 2019 and has played a huge part in the growing success of the team.

Speaking to Sky Sports, Brundle emphasized that Seidl's departure from McLaren was not very unexpected, although it could create a disruption for the team. He said:

“There’s no doubt about it, losing Seidl is bad news for McLaren going forward. 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.”

Lando Norris has made a long-term commitment to the team and is set to remain with it until the end of the 2025 season. Oscar Piastri, on the other hand, will be making his F1 debut with the team, meaning that the stakes are high for both drivers.

Brundle insists that Seidl leaving the team could be disappointing for the two of them. He said:

“The big thing for McLaren is their new wind tunnel in 2024. 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 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, CEO] 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.”

Lando Norris "frustrated" by false accusations of rivalry against former McLaren teammate

Ever since the release of the newest season of the Netflix docu-series "Drive to Survive", the rivalry between Lando Norris and Daniel Ricciardo has been exaggerated. This has been a cause of frustration for the 23-year-old who stated that this is far from the truth.

As reported by The Race, the Briton said:

“It just frustrates me when I see people trying to make it look like we hate each other or that we don’t like each other, or have fun or whatever. I hate that people think that because there’s not been one case where that’s been the truth.”

Addressing the comments that he previously made about not having "sympathy" for Ricciardo, Norris added:

"Being honest, because of some certain comments that I’ve said, when it’s regarding what it’s been like some of the things Daniel’s struggled with this car, and I’ve just been honest and said that it’s not my job to help him. Those comments, people just for some reason take it as I don’t like him, that I’m not friends with him and we don’t get along. Then they just see like a headline and just want to believe everything like that. I don’t know why else they would believe it."

Daniel Ricciardo parted ways with the team at the end of the 2022 season after finishing eleventh in the drivers' championship.