The Alfa Romeo driving pairing of Valtteri Bottas and Zhou Guanyu have both been impressed by the winter arrival of Andreas Seidl as the team’s new Chief Executive Officer.
It was confirmed late last year that Seidl would be leaving his post as team principal at McLaren to take on a role within the Sauber set-up ahead of the group’s highly anticipated transition to an Audi works team for the regulation changes coming in 2026.
Although the German will not attend every race this year – that responsibility will fall to Alfa Romeo’s new managing director, Alessandro Alunni Bravi – Bottas has been left inspired by the direction Seidl plans to take the team in the upcoming years.
“It was two weeks ago I met him for the first time”, Bottas mentioned to Autosport when asked about Seidl’s arrival.
“First of all, a nice guy, but I can see that he’s really motivated. He seems to have pretty clear direction, what to do with the team and how to motivate people. He seems to have the vision.
“Obviously he’s still just taking in a lot of information and trying to learn from other people about the team, what’s been happening in the past. I’m confident he is a good man for the role.”
Bottas’ team-mate at Alfa Romeo for a second season, Zhou, has joined his partner at the Hinwil-based squad in praising the positive impact Seidl has already made.
“I was here quite often the last few weeks, and spent a lot time together with Andreas,” the Chinese driver explained.
“I really felt how much he is really trying to push the team, but still these few weeks, he’s just taking his time to understand the whole company, to make sure everything is settled.
“But then I really see he’s very eager to bring the team up and to have a great future coming together. Spending dinner or lunch together, I really felt he’s a guy that knows quite well the technical side. He also knows well the drivers, because we’ve been speaking about his past.
“I really feel even though for the team maybe it’s a big change for us as a driver it doesn’t really change much because we’re still trying to do what we could best, It’s is more about trying to understand the way both of us are working.
“Of course it’s not going to be the same as the way Fred is working, but everyone has their own way which works. And I also heard many great words about him in the past from Oscar [Piastri]. So I’m looking forward to it.”
However, Bottas has noted his sadness in seeing former Alfa Romeo Team Principal Frederic Vasseur depart to take on the same title at Ferrari, stating that the French boss was one of the main factors in the Finn deciding to move to the team when he was told he was being axed from Mercedes midway through 2021.
“It’s absolutely correct that Fred was one big reason. Obviously, it is sad to lose Fred. But at the same time, he’s also my friend”, Bottas said, having also worked with Vasseur in F3 and GP3.
“So I’m really happy for him, because you’re not going to say no to that kind of role. He’s always been ambitious and he wants to progress, so I completely understand.
“But what makes me less worried is seeing the new structure, I feel like the team is in a pretty stable situation, I think with Andreas and Alessandro we’re going to be fine.
“And always when new people come and step to different roles there’s always new ways of thinking. So sometimes it’s not a bad thing.”
