Audi admits it “cannot accept” Sauber’s current F1 performance

Mattia Binotto, chief operating officer and technical director of Audi Formula 1, admits the Sauber team’s current performance is something it “cannot accept”.

While German manufacturer Audi is working hard to lay the foundations for its official start as a factory team in 2026, it is not surprising that the results of the acquired Sauber team are far from optimal.

The Swiss team is currently tenth and last in the Formula 1 constructors’ championship, the only team yet to score a point this season.

While the operation will look very different when we make the switch to Audi in two years’ time, Binotto says the brand cannot ignore what is happening now.

“We can’t afford it,” Binotto said during the Italian Grand Prix.

“This is the team that has to become a winning team in the future. And the only way to do that is to start climbing up, to start growing.

“We have to train our muscles for the future. So yes, I think we definitely have to improve.

“It’s important for us, it’s important for the team. It’s important for the brand. It’s important for our partners. And we can’t accept the current position somehow.”

Audi CEO Gernot Dollner and Mattia Binotto, CEO and CTO, Stake F1 Team KICK Sauber

Photo by: Andy Hone / Motorsport Images

Binotto says that while much still needs to be done in the long term to put Audi in a position to challenge for race wins, a major effort must now also be made to improve its success.

“We can’t hide behind the fact that we finished in the same positions in the race at Zandvoort and in qualifying (here), some distance from the cars in front of us,” he said.

“So we have to make an effort to improve. We have to balance all the priorities and our efforts from the short to the medium and long term.

“But I certainly don’t think our position today is a comfortable one for us. It’s very painful.

“As I said, we have to train our muscles and we have to improve them, because a solid foundation is not created in one day.

“It’s a team that has to make continuous progress every day, step by step. So, I would say, start as soon as possible.”

Binotto has been officially employed by Audi/Sauber since August 1 and has mainly looked at the state of affairs in recent weeks.

And the preliminary assessment is that there is still a lot of work to be done to develop the team into one that is as successful as he experienced at Ferrari when he was team boss.

Mattia Binotto, CEO and CTO, Stake F1 Team KICK Sauber, with a guest from Stake F1 Team Kick Sauber

Photo by: Andy Hone / Motorsport Images

“You can’t see everything in a few weeks,” he explained.

“Of course you only get a first impression of what you can encounter or see, both in Hinwil for the chassis and in Neuburg for the drivetrain.

“But I think there are great people. We have clear intentions and objectives, for us to become a winning team. But there is definitely still a lot to do, that’s the first feedback.

“We are competing with teams that have been in Formula 1 for years. They are large organisations, from top to bottom. And that is not the case with us.

“We need to scale up in terms of people, in terms of organization, in terms of tools, processes, methodologies and facilities.

“We definitely need to merge what we do in Hinwil and what we do in Neuburg in terms of the powertrain.

“And it’s just as much a question of culture and mindset, because to become a winning team we have to change our mindset about what it takes.”

Binotto expected that it would take a number of years before he could imagine Audi being successful.

Zhou Guanyu, Stake F1 Team KICK Sauber C44

Photo by: Andy Hone / Motorsport Images

Audi CEO Gernot Doellner admitted that Audi now understands the challenges of Formula 1 better and that it also realises that it may take longer than initially thought to win.

“We really see our F1 project as a long-term project,” he said.

“After I joined Audi last September, we evaluated our project. Ultimately, we found the setup we had found. We may have also recalibrated our timeline to a more realistic path.

“We can’t give any details yet because we’re still discussing different aspects of how we’re going to solve it, but I think we’re quite realistic about the time.”

Watch: Will McLaren Use Team Orders? – F1 Italian GP Qualifying Report