Sauber’s team principal, Alessandro Alunni Bravi, will leave the team at the end of the month. Starting his motorsport career more than 20 years ago, the Italian lawyer first became a border member of Sauber Group in 2017 after the company’s takeover by Longbow Finance. He became more closely involved with the F1 team in 2023 – then racing under the Alfa Romeo name – replacing former team principal Frederic Vasseur who moved to Ferrari. Bravi will leave the team at the end of January to pursue “a new project”, clearing the path for former Red Bull sporting director Jonathan Wheatley to take the reigns. However, although Red Bull has agreed to end Wheatley’s gardening leave earlier than the originally predicted summer 2025 timeline, Sauber will still need to wait until April 1 before he can start his new role at the team. Former Ferrari team principal Mattia Binotto, who joined Sauber as COO and CTO in August last year, is set to serve as interim team principal for the year’s first two races.
Audi completed its full takeover of the Sauber F1 team this week. The deal, worth an estimated €600m, sees Audi claim 100% ownership in the team. The original plan was for Audi to purchase 75% of the team, but Audi’s commitment to the team was upped in March last year to fully purchase the team. The team, which debuted in F1 in 1993, will race under the Sauber name for one final season before becoming an Audi works team in 2026.
Ex-Haas race engineer Gary Gannon has joined Aston Martin ahead of the 2025 season. Gannon, who had been with Haas since its inaugural season, left the team at the end of 2024. At Haas, he has worked as race engineer for Romain Grosjean, Mick Schumacher, and finally Nico Hulkenberg. It hasn’t been confirmed what role he will serve on the team or which driver he will work with. In 2024, Lance Stroll’s race engineer was Ben Michell and Chris Cronin worked with Fernando Alonso. Both have worked with the team for many years. Gannon has ten years of previous experience working as an engineer for Honda in multiple racing series, potentially making him a good addition to the team ahead of their planned switch to the Honda power unit in 2026.
Charles Leclerc’s former race engineer, Xavier Marcos, has left for a role at Cadillac. Marcos had worked as Leclerc’s race engineer at Ferrari since 2019 until Bryan Bozzi replaced him before the May 2024 Emilia Romagna Grand Prix. At the time, Ferrari explained that Marcos had been moved to “other important company programmes” within the company. Marcos has since been recruited to Cadillac as technical director of its LMDh sportscar programme, which competes in the WEC and IMSA championships. His new role will not be related to Cadillac’s new Formula One project, which is set to join the grid in 2026.
Formula One presenter, Will Buxton, is stepping aside from the sport in favour of a new IndyCar role. Starting as an F1 pit-lane reporter for Speed in 2010 before moving to NBC Sports and then the official F1 TV platform, Buxton has become a regular face in the F1 media. He has hosted a variety of shows on F1 TV and has participated in every season of Netflix’s popular Drive to Survive series. However, he has reached a deal with Fox Sports to become a commentator for its IndyCar coverage, which is moving to the network from NBC Sports in 2025. He will be joined by former drivers James Hinchcliffe, who has also had a strong F1 media presence in the past year, and Townsend Bell. It’s unclear who, if anyone, will replace Buxton on the F1 TV team.
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