Audi’s Latest F1 Hire Is Another Big Loss for Red Bull
On August 1st, Red Bull Racing announced that sporting director Jonathan Wheatley will leave their Formula 1 program at the end of the 2024 season, ending a relationship that dates back to 2006. After a brief "gardening leave," as the F1 saying goes, Wheatley is expected to join Audi's forthcoming Formula 1 program as team principal.
When he arrives at the forthcoming Audi program in mid-2025, Wheatley will be asked to turn the current Sauber team into a contender worthy of factory-level involvement from the Volkswagen Group. He will work closely with new signing Mattia Binotto in building an effective, entirely new team off the foundation of the existing Sauber system.
Given that Sauber has not scored a single point in 2024, that will be a relatively big ask. The current Sauber is a struggling team with an odd cryptocurrency sponsor and just one driver signed for 2025. That driver, Nico Hulkenberg, is signed for multiple years and will be part of the Audi operation when it begins in 2026, although he will be 38 when the Audi program finally gets underway — and so far, the team has failed in attracting a big-name driver to pair with Hulkenberg.
Binotto and Wheatley will have to figure out how to fix all this. Their task all starts with on-track performance, but building a winning team is easier said than done. A noncompetitive car doesn't attract leading drivers, and a team without leading drivers is instantly a step behind. That vicious cycle can easily snowball, as it has for Sauber since BMW ended its partnership with the team after the 2010 season.
A finish in the top half of the constructor's standings would be a good start, but Sauber hasn't accomplished that feat since 2008. In other words, Audi leadership has to worry about getting to the mid-pack before the team goes about figuring out how to escape it. It's not an impossible task, as McLaren has proved in the past few years... but it is a big ask.
Audi's splashy hire also represents a huge loss for Red Bull. Wheatley has worked for just two teams in his career: his 18-year stint at Red Bull and a preceding 15-year run at the team known as both Benetton and Renault over the years. Over those 33 years, Wheatley has contributed to eight constructor's championship titles and 153 grand prix wins.
He becomes the second high-profile departure from Red Bull this season, joining long-time designer and all-around legend Adrian Newey. The two departures — officially the team's Chief Technical Officer and Sporting Director — represent an effective break-up of the original Red Bull team that won titles with both Sebastian Vettel and Max Verstappen.
Christian Horner, who kept his job after a major internal investigation over the past off-season, will now be tasked with replacing that talent and keeping Red Bull at the top of the constructor's standings in a new era. Max Verstappen is staying put, at least for now — but Red Bull needs to give the biggest talent in F1 a car worthy of winning a championship or risk losing him.
In a nutshell: Audi just got stronger and Red Bull just got weaker, at least in theory. In practice, the outcomes will come down to how Horner and Wheatley actually operate their teams. We'll find out soon enough.
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