Martin Brundle fears that McLaren will regret losing team principal to Audi.

The veteran racer turned commentator fears the loss of the German will destabilise the Woking outfit at a time it is seeking to close the gap to the big three.

Though he was planning to join Audi in time for its entry to the sport in 2026, Seidl, with the co-operation of Zak Brown was able to terminate his contract with McLaren early when Frederic Vasseur left Sauber to join Ferrari. Brown, believing it was in everyone's best interest to release Seidl early, subsequently promoted Andrea Stella insisting that the team's progress will not be compromised.

Martin Brundle, who drove for McLaren in 1994, does not agree.

"There's no doubt about it, losing Seidl is bad news for McLaren going forward," he tells Sky Sports.

"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," adds the Briton.

But this is not what they needed."

The veteran of 158 Grand Prix starts, SportsCar world champion and Le Mans winner, also wonders how the news will affect drivers Lando Norris and Oscar Piastri.

"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 prefers to McLaren?

"Oscar will be disappointed as well," he adds, "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 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."