Another Key Red Bull F1 Staffer Is Jumping Ship

Red Bull Racing director Jonathan Wheatley confirmed Thursday morning that he is leaving the Formula 1 team at the end of the 2024 season to join Audi as team principal in 2026. Wheatley joined the Milton Keynes team nearly 20 years ago and has climbed through the ranks performing various tasks, starting as team manager and most recently sporting director.

The senior staffer has been crucial to RBR’s winning efforts—13 championships total—first with Sebastian Vettel and most recently with Max Verstappen. While for different reasons, the team’s most recent staff departures paint a grim picture of its competitiveness in coming years. Legendary designer Adrian Newey announced his departure back in May also after 20 years with the squad. Though much like Wheatley, he will remain active for the rest of the year and enjoy a period of gardening leave in 2025.

“Everyone at Oracle Red Bull Racing and Red Bull Technology wish him all the best in his new role and would like to place our thanks to Jonathan,” RBR said in a statement. “Red Bull Racing have tremendous strength and depth and this provides an opportunity to elevate others within the Team. We will announce a new Team structure in the coming weeks.”

As I said before, Red Bull can—and should—start worrying now. While F1 teams are revolving doors for staffers at any given time, a rocky adjustment period always follows the departure of a tenured senior member like Wheatley. Once a replacement is announced, it’s hard to guess how long that transition will last until things run as smoothly as they did with the former person in charge. In F1, each weekend counts, and top teams can’t afford to waste scoring opportunities due to staffing changes.

Christian Horner will have his work cut out over the next 24 months as his designer, advisor, and friend leaves his side, now joined by Wheatley, and also a massive change from Honda to Red Bull/Ford in the power unit department. And this doesn’t even include the many others who will likely be leaving the team but it hasn’t been announced yet, nor the “little guys” who don’t trigger headlines when jumping ship. All of this is on top of no longer being the dominant car week in and week out.

Things are also rocky at Audi, after recently announcing that CEO Andrea Seidl was leaving the F1 project and tasking former Ferrari boss Mattia Binotto with the job. Wheatley will report directly to Binotto, though only one driver has been confirmed for the team so far; Nico Hulkenberg. The second Audi seat for 2026 is currently still open.

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