Six months after being ousted as team boss from the Ferrari Formula One team where he worked all his life, Mattia Binotto reportedly visited the Audi F1 project in the June of 2023. He was reportedly offered the role to manage Audi’s entrance into the sport but rejected it according to Italian media reports.

“He was somewhat disappointed by what he saw at Audi,” the Italian newspaper Corriere dello Sport claimed. “So much so that in some private messages he sensationally said that some of the characters he met in that meeting were ‘clowns’.”

Just over twelve months later, Audi announced prior to this year’s Hungarian Grand Prix that Binotto would indeed be taking charge in a huge management shakeup of the organisation.

 

 

 

Binotto acts quickly

Sacked were the CEO, Andreas Seidl along with ex-main board member Oliver Hoffman after reports the pair were at loggerheads over the future direction of the team. Binotto was swift to act as the appointment of Red Bull’s Jonathan Wheatley as team principal was announced the following week.

Wheatley had been with the Milton Keynes squad since it was formed for the 2006 season and his role as Sporting Director saw him in the top tier of management at the World Champions.

Audi have struggled to create positive headlines since they announced they were joining Formula One back in August of 2022. They purchased a quarter share in Swiss based minnows Sauber, but the planned time delay of three years to complete the acquisition saw Kick Sauber out of funds over the last winter break.

Despite having concerns over the capabilities of driver Zhou Guangyu, Sauber were forced to give the Chinese driver a contract extension for 2024 given the reported $30m he brings from wealthy Chinese backers.

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Huge Audi F1 power unit investment

Even this appeared to be insufficient to prevent the team fro going under so Audi brought forward the purchase of the remaining shares in the team in a surprise announcement in march this year.

Audi have invested in upgrading their motorsport base in Neuburg an der Donau and opened a new 3,000 square metre facility earlier this year. But with just 60 specialised employees planned for the F1 division it appeared Audi were not taking the project seriously.

Stefan Dreyer, Audi Formula Racing CTO revealed in a recent statement: “We implemented a very ambitious modernisation and expansion of our test facility. Today, we have 22 state-of-the-art test benches at the site. Our new development tools are state-of-the-art and have enabled us to achieve a steep learning curve. 

“By testing on the test bench under simulated racing conditions we gain important insights in this phase of the project. After the successful race distances with the power unit we will soon be doing the same with the entire drive system, which means the combination of power unit and transmission.”

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Hulkenberg a positive for Audi boss

Yet the sudden arrival of Binotto confirms all is not well with the Audi F1 project and the Sauber performances on track are the worst of all the current F1 teams. They are the only team yet to score a point this season with Zhou Gunagyu delivering their best result of P11 in the season opener in Bahrain.

Andreas Seidl’s coup detente in signing Nico Hülkenberg for next season will be a positive for Binotto. Despite driving an underfunded Haas F1 car, the German driver has hauled his machine into a top six finish at both recent Austrian And British Grand Prix.

The future is uncertain for the current pairing of Bottas and Zhou, with the Finn claiming to Turun Sanomat newspaper in Montreal that talks were close to conclusion.

“Certainly before the summer break we will talk, and hopefully we will find common ground very quickly. I see no reason why not,” said the Finn.

“So far we haven’t talked about that and we don’t during a race weekend. But I’ve made progress with the team all the time, and I just have to keep going in the same way, so everything is fine,” Bottas added.

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Bottas admits Binotto “resets” driver talks

But all this was before Binotto arrived and Bottas now admits: “It is going to reset the talks a bit. Because we have previously been in communication with Andreas and Oliver, and now it’s Mattia,” he explained. “For sure that will change some things. So we need to speak. It’s a bit of a complicated situation, but let’s see.”

Giving the new funding coming from Audi, Zhou Guangyu is almost certainly set to leave kick Sauber at the end of this season, yet ten times Grand Prix winner Valtteri Bottas looks a good choice to stay following Carlos Sainz surprise rejection of the brand which his father drivers for the independent Williams team.

It will take time for Binotto to get to grips with the state of the Audi F1 project and set priorities for the short and long term and where improvements are required.

“Obviously some things are internal, but we know that compared to the big teams, we’re still lacking a bit of human power,” Bottas reveals. “There are certain areas that we definitely need to focus on, at the factory but also with the car performance.”

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Audi/Sauber integration a year behind plan

“We’re at the moment not where we need to be. We needed some new upgrades and [to go] in the right direction. It’s been pretty clear that all the decisions in the last year or two have been made to be competitive from ’26.”

Kick Sauber’s technical director James key revealed earlier this year the integration between Neuberg and Hinwii are not properly advanced and worryingly admitted, “Ultimately, we’re probably not going to be the final [Audi] product that we’re aiming for until about ’27 time really, because there is a lot to do,” he revealed in January.

For Bottas the arrival of Binotto may have saved his F1 career. With Seidl preferring the Sainz/Hulkenberg line up a future drive elsewhere for the Finn was in serious doubt.

With the exception of last season, since joining Mercedes in 2017 Valtteri has suffered the ignominy of having just one year F1 driver contracts. If he is retained by Binotto this will probably be the case again as the Italian gets to grips with just how far Audi must progress to ensure their first year in F1 is not a huge flop.

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Its going to be “very difficult” to help Perez, says Red Bull boss

Sergio Perez is now in his fourth season with Red Bull Racing and tenure with the world champion F1 team has been mixed at best. The Mexican driver claimed his maiden F1 victory during the Covid stricken season when at the 2020 Sakhir Grand Prix he took the lead from Esteban Ocon with just over 20 laps remaining.

Since his arrival at Red Bull the following season as the replacement for the outgoing Alex Albon, Checo was won five Grand Prix with his first coming at the 2021 Azerbaijan Grand Prix.

This year of course saw the titanic battle between his team mate and Lewis Hamilton for the drivers title which famously was won on the last lap of the last race of the year. While Verstappen was basking in the glory of his first championship, Red Bull lost out to Mercedes in the constructors’ title race that season due to Perez’s inability to match the performances of Valtteri Bottas, Mercedes number two driver… READ MORE