Andreas Seidl who left McLaren to head up the Audi F1 project has been sacked today as the German brand bring in failed Ferrari boss Mattia Binotto. Also removed was Oliver Hoffman who had previously chaired each of the boards of all the Sauber owned companies.

TJ13 reported last year that Audi were looking to recruit Mattia Binotto only for Italian media to suggest the ex-Ferrari boss had visited the Audi F1 setup and was less than impressed.

“He was somewhat disappointed by what he saw at Audi,” the Italian publication Corriere dello Sport wrote. “So much so that in some private messages he sensationally said that some of the characters he met in that meeting were ‘clowns’.” Clearly these were not Binotto’s words with hindsight given today’s news he will now operate as chief operating officer and chief technical officer.

 

 

 

Civil war in the Audi F1 project

“With his extensive experience of more than 25 years in Formula 1, he will undoubtedly be able to make a decisive contribution for Audi,” said Dollner who now chairs the Sauber operations. But how did all this come about? As TJ13 reported last week the makings of a civil war had been developing within the Audi F1 project.

An insider revealed the Audi corporate main board were meddling in the day to day efforts of the F1 project and creating an ongoing headache for their nominated CEO Andreas Seidl. There have been repeated reports that the new Audi power unit for 2026 is way off schedule and a recent update from their HQ which was intended to inspire confidence, in fact said little more than claiming their facilities are now state of the art.

Audi are one of the reasons Formula One retained the overweight monster hybrid powered cars beyond 2026 as together with Porsche they pushed for this outcome, believing several years ago it would be the future of road car technology. Now of course consumers are realising that hybrid is a bridge from the combustion engine to all electric power and that the extra weight of both an ICE and battery together with hybrid systems is questionable in terms of output efficiency.

Today in another effort to spin positive news on the Audi F1 project, the German brand has announced its future partnership with BP to provide FIA specified sustainable fuel for their powertrain. Further, BP’s specialist lubricant division Castrol will be developing lubricants for Audi’s V6 turbo engine and EV fluids for the electric motor and battery.

 

Lando Norris needs to “grow some balls”

 

 

 

Audi demonstrate commitment

Following reports of Audi getting cold feet, they accelerated their 100% purchase of the Sauber team earlier this season but the news for current drivers Valtteri Bottas and Zhou Guangu is not so good as the Race recently claimed Audi want drivers with, “experience, speed and marketability for its works team and Bottas and Zhou don’t tick all of those boxes.”

Seidl’s biggest public success to date is capturing the signature of the impressive German driver Nico Hulkenberg to join the Sauber/Audi team from 2025 and although he attempted to lure Carlos Sainz to the project giving him an April ’24 deadline to decide, but as yet the second driver for next year remains undecided.

However all is not well in Audi’s F1 programme as corporate interference appears to be plaguing the efforts of Seidl to build the team. Oliver Hoffmann was ousted from Audi’s main board by CEO Gernot Dollner and offered the F1 project as a sop, with the title of Chief Representative, yet he and Seidl do not see eye to eye reports from AutoAction are to be believed.

Hoffman’s duties are to oversee the progress of the current Sauber Hinwii based operation, the development of the power unit in Neuberg and the ‘strategic direction’ of the team. Seidl is the public face of the entire operation, but their roles appear to have significant amount of overlap which is the source of the conflict according to AutoAction’s sources.

Wolff’s revealing update on Hamilton’s replacement

 

 

 

Seidl suffers interference

Seidl is surging the Audi main board of directors to drop Hoffman as he believes he can manage the entire operation better himself. Andreas has targeted Aston Martin’s Mike Krack as team principal and recently captured Mercedes’ Stefan Strähnz in the newly created position of Programme Director at Sauber.

Hoffman is demanding Seidl is sacked and he too claims he is targeting Mike Krack to join Audi as the racing team’s boss.

All this points to a corporate mindset ruling the roost, something Ford did with Jaguar and Renault have done for years with Renault F1, which is clearly not the way to run a Formula One team.

Red Bull resisted the advances of Porsche as a partner for 2026 as Christian Horner explained they had too different a set of cultural values. When questioned why the Porsche deal fell through in the Autumn of 2022, the Red Bull boss was candid with his explanation.

Sainz reveals his remaining F1 options

 

 

 

Red Bull approach to corporate culture

“One of the strengths this team [RBR] has has been its independence; at times it instills all of the virtues and values of Red Bull — as a challenger, as a maverick — and it’s one of the core attributes that has enabled us to be as successful as we have in the sport to date. We didn’t want to diminish those or dilute those in any way and they’re fundamental principles for how we will also attack the challenge of the power unit.”

“One of our core strengths has been our independence and our quick decision-making and lack of bureaucracy. We’re a race team fundamentally and that enables us to make quick decisions, effective decisions and react very quickly as a race team. I think we’ve seen on so many occasions manufacturers have been less autonomous in their decision-making and that was a key aspect of protecting what we have and how we operate, which has proved to be reasonably successful.”

Audi now face the challenge of resolving quickly their F1projects internal civil war given time is short before they hit the track in 2026. In an attempt to show progress to the world, Adam Baker, who is the CEO of Audi Formula Racing GmbH, said that the German manufacturer has already simulated race distances with its power units.

In a lengthy interview which reads like a corporate mission statement as reported by F1technical.net, various claims are made about the upgrade of the Neuberg facility which is now “state of the art” and a rambling example of how Audi have simulated the Las Vegas track to ensure the range of performance is there for both low speed traction and top speed efficiency.

Ferrari boss mischievous hints over Newey

 

 

 

Audi treading a well worn path

Whether Audi will ever be successful in Formula One is anyone’s guess at present, yet the project feels similar to the one undertaken by Toyota back at the turn of the millennium. As Audi are doing, the Japanese auto manufacturer set up a base for the 2002 season away from the British motorsport valley and invested more than any other single F1 team in their project over the course of their F1 journey.

140 races later corporate HQ in Japan called an end to the project which had failed to win a single race in eight years, just three pole positions and seventeen podiums.

Ironically its was BMW Sauber who claimed Toyota’s spot on the 2010 grid, though BMW had officially withdrawn from F1 and the team were powered by Ferrari V8 engines.

Marko books London flight for showdown talks with Horner

 

 

 

McLaren “outrageous” messages to Norris say F1 driver

The 2024 Formula One season is hotting up as a number of senior paddock individuals believe the fight for the championships are back on after early season form which suggested Red Bull Racing would run away with the honours as they did last year.

McLaren have been knocking at the door since Lando Norris won in Miami, with the British driver unfortunate not to have five victories this year already, rather than just the one claimed in Florida.

Yet the second most historic of F1 teams has not been at the sharp end for the best part of a decade and recent near misses and chaos in Hungary suggest they not quite ready to take the mantle from the world champions.  READ MORE