Andreas Seidl is to leave his position as McLaren team principal to head up Audi's nascent Formula 1 programme at the Alfa Romeo/Sauber team.

The 46-year-old German will be replaced at McLaren by Italian Andrea Stella, executive racing director since 2019.

McLaren Racing chief executive officer Zak Brown described Stella as "highly talented, experienced and respected".

Stella starts his role with immediate effect. Seidl will begin his position at Sauber in January.

Seidl's role as chief executive will be to gradually improve the team's performance so Audi can make its debut in as competitive a shape as possible when its entry coincides with F1's new engine regulations.

Industry sources say he will oversee the entire Audi F1 programme, both car and engine, and will in time appoint a team principal to run day-to-day operations and report to him. The current Alfa Romeo/Sauber team principal Frederic Vasseur is moving to Ferrari.

Seidl had also been approached by Ferrari as a potential replacement for Mattia Binotto, but is said by insiders to have preferred to take on a position at Audi.

Seidl's move sees him return to a leading motorsport role within the Volkswagen Group - he was head of Porsche's successful endurance racing programme before joining McLaren.

He was also an engineer at the Sauber team when it was owned by BMW between 2006 and 2009.

Seidl said: "This is a team with a rich history in Formula 1 and an organisation I know really well from my time working and living in Hinwil for four years."

Lando Norris, who joined McLaren in 2019, tweeted it had been "mega" to work with Seidl and added: "I've never seen our team looking as strong as it is now and some of that is credit to the work you've done."

Audi announced in October that it was to take over Sauber for its debut in F1 in 2026.

In 2023, the Switzerland-based team will have its final year racing under the name of the Alfa Romeo brand, which has provided financial support since 2018.

The outfit will continue to race as Sauber in 2024 and 2025, with Ferrari engines, as it gears up for Audi's official entry.

From 2015-17, Seidl led Porsche to three consecutive victories in the Le Mans 24 Hours and the drivers' and constructors' titles in the World Endurance Championship, before joining McLaren after Porsche shut the programme down.

He has been instrumental in McLaren's revival from their all-time low at the end of 2018, when they ended the season with the slowest car on the grid.

Since then, McLaren have established themselves as a leading team behind the big three, won their first race since 2012 at the Italian Grand Prix in 2021, and have expectations of making further progress after a new wind tunnel comes on stream in the middle of next year.

His departure will be seen as a blow to McLaren, as he has made a strong impression in F1, but Brown is confident Stella will be a capable replacement.

Brown said Seidl informed him earlier this year of his intention to leave McLaren for another team when his contract came to a conclusion at the end of 2025, and that the original intention had been to continue as things were until then.

But when Vasseur's move to Ferrari became clear, Sauber owner Finn Rausing contacted him and they came to a deal to resolve the move immediately.

Brown said: "Andrea is a highly talented, experienced and respected member of our team with a strong track record of leadership and success in Formula 1."

Stella will lead McLaren's technical and operational programme and he steps up to run the team after a long career as an engineering leader in F1.

He was at Ferrari from 2000 to 2014 as a race engineer, working with Michael Schumacher, Kimi Raikkonen and then Fernando Alonso.

When Alonso left Ferrari for McLaren at the end of 2014, Stella decided to go with him, first as head of race operations, then performance director in 2018 and racing director in 2019.

Since 2019, he has been one of the three leaders of the team under Seidl, along with technical director James Key and production director Piers Thynne.

Stella said he felt "privileged" by his new position, adding that he would be a "hands-on kind of team principal".

Stella is a diffident character, and admitted on Tuesday that he had been "reluctant" until now to step into the spotlight and take on public-facing engagements and that he needed to reflect on this aspect of the role before accepting it.

"I just focused on my job," he said. "That was my focus. So it needed a bit of thought but it is also about preparation and getting familiar and being honest."