Audi Braced for Rollercoaster Ride as F1 Debut Nears

 Audi team principal Jonathan Wheatley has warned that the manufacturer’s debut Formula 1 season is likely to be a rollercoaster, as the German marque prepares to enter the championship as a full works team under the new regulations.

Audi officially unveiled its first Formula 1 car, the R26, at a launch event in Berlin on Tuesday. The car appeared in a silver, red and black livery, a design that had previously been previewed during a pre-launch show in December, but was now revealed fully adorned with sponsor branding.

The project represents a major operational challenge. Audi has taken over Sauber’s Hinwil factory in Switzerland, while simultaneously developing its first-ever Formula 1 power unit at a newly established facility in Neuberg. As a result, the organisation faces intense pressure as it prepares to compete directly with F1’s established teams from the outset.

Although Audi has publicly set a long-term target of fighting for world championships by 2030, Wheatley who joined from Red Bull Racing after serving as sporting director has made clear that the initial campaign will be defined by learning, fluctuation, and adaptation.

Speaking to RacingNews365 during a select media session ahead of the launch, Wheatley outlined how Audi approaches performance targets in its maiden season.

“Everyone is starting with a car that you’re racing that year, so you set a target internally,” Wheatley explained.
“There are times when you track to that target very tightly and start to think you’ll beat it, and then there are other times when you have good weeks and bad weeks as you begin to understand your development process.”

For Audi, Wheatley stressed that the immediate focus lies in preparation rather than results.

“For us now, it’s about maximising the testing we have before the first race,” he said.
“It’s about understanding the car as well as we can, listening to the drivers, and making sure our development goes in the right direction.”

Like every team on the grid, Audi has faced an extremely compressed development timeline. The 2026 regulations covering the new power unit architecture and associated aerodynamic changes were only formally issued to teams on January 1 last year. In response, most outfits curtailed development of their 2025 cars early to redirect resources toward the new era, with Sauber among those shifting focus.

For Audi, however, the workload has been significantly greater. In addition to adapting to the new regulations, the team has had to transform its organisational structure while integrating a newly developed in-house power unit for the first time in Formula 1.

When asked how competitive he expects Audi to be in its debut season, Wheatley adopted a cautious, wait-and-see stance.

“Time will tell,” Wheatley said.
“There’s some novel technology on the car that the engineering group has been developing and looking to implement for a while, but you just never know how it will perform.”

According to Wheatley, a true picture of the competitive order will only emerge once the season is underway.

“Nobody is really going to know where they stand until qualifying in Melbourne,” he added.
“And you won’t truly know until we’re two or three races into the season who actually has a package that works everywhere.”

Despite the complexity of the new era, Wheatley emphasised that the fundamentals of Formula 1 remain unchanged.

“There are so many different elements to it, but at the end of the day you still have a chassis, a powertrain, and a driver,” he concluded.
“It’s about getting the best out of all of that.”

As Audi prepares for its first Formula 1 campaign, expectations are deliberately measured. With long-term ambitions clearly defined, the debut season is viewed internally as a necessary and demanding phase—one that will test resilience, processes, and technical integration before the manufacturer can realistically challenge at the front of the grid.