Audi urged to make rapid improvements after 'embarrassing' F1 start

Audi have been advised to make urgent changes within their F1 operation after a disappointing start to the season went from bad to worse at the Miami Grand Prix.

After a five-week enforced break from the calendar due to the cancellation of the Bahrain and Saudi Arabian Grands Prix, Audi announced a management shake-up following the exit of team principal Jonathan Wheatley.

Wheatley had taken up the role at the helm of the outfit formerly known as Sauber following his departure from the ranks of Red Bull Racing, but after just two rounds in the 2026 campaign under the Audi branding, he left the team and cited 'personal reasons' for his premature exit.

Head of the Audi F1 project Mattia Binotto took on the extra responsibilities of a team principal as the search for Wheatley's replacement got underway.

However, ahead of the fourth round of the championship in Miami, the German brand announced that Allan McNish would become their racing director, with Binotto taking on the role of CEO and team principal.

And in the words of Sky Sports F1 commentator David Croft, the Miami GP was quite literally a baptism of fire for McNish.

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Audi's Miami GP meltdown

The first F1 event of the year to take place stateside was a sprint weekend, and therefore presented the opportunity for Audi to pick up some vital points and improve their eighth place position in the constructors' standings after the Japanese GP.

But instead, the German marque dropped to P9 after their driver duo failed to pick up a single point between them in Miami.

Both Gabriel Bortoleto and Nico Hulkenberg were eliminated from sprint qualifying in SQ2 on Friday in South Florida, and things hardly improved come Saturday.

Hulkenberg grappled with a major issue during the buildup to the Miami sprint and despite making it out on track, smoke could soon be seen billowing out of the rear of his Audi F1 car, ruling him out of the 100km race before it even started.

Bortoleto managed to cross the line in P11, albeit out of the points, but was disqualified from the sprint after the stewards discovered an engine intake air pressure violation on his car after the race.

As a result, the Audi F1 mechanics were handed the unenviable task of attempting to make his car legal before the qualifying session later that day.

After quickly patching up the Audi R26, Bortoleto made it out on track, but quickly suffered a similar fate to Hulkenberg earlier in the weekend, with his qualifying stint swiftly brought to an end as his car caught fire.

In Sunday's main event, Bortoleto crossed the line in P12, once again out of points contention, with Hulkenberg suffering a DNF in what marked a third consecutive point-less race weekend for Audi.

Audi F1 in desperate need of 'coherence and consistency'

Following Audi's Miami weekend to forget, Sky F1's Crofty said on the F1 Show: "On the engine side, they're as new as Red Bull Powertrains. On the chassis aero side, they were Sauber so it's not like they haven't been building cars for many, many years."

"This was a baptism of fire literally for Allan McNish as their racing director but they can't keep having weekends like this.

"It's three out of five races now that they failed to start even before the grand prix and Hulkenberg retiring.

"It’s a little bit embarrassing I think for Audi. They will get it right eventually, but they need to start getting it right now because there is potential there, but there's so many different little things that are going wrong. You wonder why that is. It needs a bit more coherence and consistency and it's just not coming."

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Written by

Kerry Violet - F1 News Editor

Having graduated from the University of Sheffield with a 2:1 in Journalism in 2022, Kerry continued her pursuit of finding a full-time position in motorsport through work with the F1 Arcade in London, where she got to meet true fans of the sport and make a live grand prix watch party memorable for them. It was here that she confirmed her dream of combining her background in journalism and love of motorsport, going on to volunteer with the female-led platform Empoword Journalism. Having completed stints as a screen editor and sports editor, Kerry landed her first F1-specific editorial role with GPFans and has thoroughly enjoyed continuing to work closely with the sport ever since. The access GPFans offers Kerry has allowed her to interview big names such as Naomi Schiff and David Coulthard and given her experiences she could only have dreamt of as a young F1 fan.

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