Audi F1 Update: Scaling Back Bold Prediction of Quick Formula 1 Success

• Audi plans to enter Formula 1 under new engine rules in 2026 when it takes control of the current Kick Sauber team.

• Upon the announcement of Audi's entry, officials outlined its ambition to be winning races within three years.

• However, without confirming a specific target, the team organizers now say such a goal of winning so quickly is unfeasible.

Audi says it is setting a “more realistic” target for when it enters Formula 1 in 2026, following lengthy analysis of its project.

Audi announced in mid-2022 that it will enter Formula 1 under new engine rules in 2026, and is taking over control of the Sauber team, a process that will be fully completed by Q1 of 2025.

It will be the first time that the German car giant has competed in Formula 1.

Upon the announcement of its entry it outlined its ambition to be winning races within three years, but without confirming a specific target has now intimated that such a goal is unfeasible.

“We see our Formula 1 project as a really long-term project,” said Audi CEO Gernot Dollner, who took up the role 12 months ago. “We maybe recalibrated our time path to a more realistic one… I think we are quite realistic when it comes to time.”

Dollner stressed that Audi has a “long-term commitment to Formula 1” and that re-evaluations of its project related to plans and organization, denying that the company ever wavered in its commitment, labelling Formula 1 and Audi “a perfect fit.”

Dollner’s outlook was echoed by Mattia Binotto, who took up the role of Sauber Motorsport’s chief executive and chief technical officer at the start of August.

“If we look at other teams having opened a winning cycle it took always several years to become the wining team, so that will be the case,” Binotto said. “It was the same for Red Bull, Mercedes, it took several years, we are starting from a small entity, we need a clear business transformation from the culture and mindset point of view.

"We need to step by step move taking the right decisions, looking for the right solutions, and having a clear objective in a few years’ time to become the winning team and the benchmark for Formula 1.”

Leadership Structure

Doller and Binotto represent a new management structure after predecessors Oliver Hoffmann and Andreas Seidl, who was McLaren’s Team Principal from 2019 to 2022, were ousted.

Binotto has joined after 18 months out of Formula 1, following on from a 27-year spell at Ferrari, during which he held several roles, including its Team Principal.

He resigned after a 2022 season in which Ferrari’s challenge for both championships failed. Binotto will be joined next year by current Red Bull team manager Jonathan Wheatley, who will become team principal, at a yet-to-be-defined date before July.

Dollner described the arrangement as a “strong dual leadership team,” with Binotto overseeing the project, and Wheatley running the day-to-day race team.

Dollner highlighted that at board level Audi is cognizant that the Formula 1 team will need to “act fast and independently” and that “we are totally aware it is necessary to keep this project away from corporate processes—decisions have to be taken in Hinwil.”

No Decision on Second Driver

Binotto’s predecessor Seidl recruited veteran Nico Hulkenberg for 2025 but was unsuccessful in his pursuit of exiled Ferrari driver Carlos Sainz, who will instead join Williams.

Sauber currently fields Valtteri Bottas and Zhou Guanyu, has last year’s Formula 2 champion Théo Pourchaire as reserve, while Binotto name checked Formula 2 title contender Gabriel Bortoleto when asked if the Brazilian was an option.

“These are not the only names,” Binotto said. “There are many names on the list, with great potential – we need to judge what’s most important for us in the short-, medium- and long-term.”

Binotto added that the team hopes to “decide as soon as possible” to “stop speculation, as it’s not in our interest,” but that what it needs and requires from its second driver has yet to be determined.

Painful Season

Binotto has only been part of the team for just over a month—two weeks of which included the summer shutdown—and is still getting a handle on the organization.

“Certainly there is much to do, no doubt that is the first feedback,” he said. “We are competing against teams that are for many years in F1 big organizations, we need to ramp up in terms of people and organization, tools, processes, methodology, facilities, we need to merge [Sauber’s factory at] Hinwil with [Audi’s engine base at] Neuberg, and it’s about as well the culture and mindset, because to become a winning team it is about changing our mindset towards what is required.”

Sauber has regressed through the current regulatory cycle and is in the midst of a dreadful campaign, with its car the slowest in the field, leaving it as the only team without a point.

Binotto emphasized that, while Audi’s eyes are understandably on 2026, it cannot accept another middling season in 2025.

“This is the team that in the future has to become a winning team and the only way to do that is starting moving up, progressing, we need to train our muscles for the future,” Binotto said. “Yes, we certainly need to improve, that’s important for the team, brand and partners, we cannot accept somehow the current position, but that is a matter of fact where we are, we cannot hide, we were last and second last in Zandvoort, in qualifying [at Monza] the same positions, some distance to the cars ahead.

“We need to put effort in improving, we need to balance all the priorities and our efforts from the short to medium to long term, and certainly I don’t think our position today is a comfortable one for us at all, it is very painful. We need to improve continuously, step by step, starting from as soon as possible.”

Engine ‘A Very Big Task’

Audi was enticed to Formula 1 by the new engine regulations, and Binotto balanced optimism with caution when discussing the marque’s development.

“The engine is progressing well, running at the dyno, some long distance so far already performed,” he said.

“But here as well it is a learning process, we are competing against other manufacturers who are already experts with experience from many years. While I think that the organization there is great, the facilities are great, still there is a learning curve, which needs to be done, I’m expecting initially to have some gap to recover, how big it may be, I think that you can never know until the time you are on track and we can understand what we’ve got.

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“There is an intense program on the dynos, and in development, and it will be our task to be as much competitive as we can be at the start of ‘26.”

Binotto added that “we know the task is huge—it’s a big investment” and emphasized that “it’s not about only design and development, but the process towards reliability, race track management, there’s a lot that needs to be learned.”