Former Ferrari man shares shocking revelation about the Audi project when he joined the squad 

Former Ferrari man Mattia Binotto has shared shocking revelations about the condition the Audi project was in when he first joined the team. The German automotive manufacturer will join the sport in 2026 as a fully operational works team, and as a part of the project, the brand has fully acquired Sauber, which would get rebranded.

The process of change of ownership began in 2022 when Audi first announced that the brand was going to be on the grid in 2026, which would be the start of the new regulations. As it turns out, that involved a systematic buyout of Sauber, where the Germans would take over chunks of the team in a periodic manner.

As soon as the announcement was first made, it was followed by a period of stagnation at Sauber. The team started regressing in terms of performance in the pecking order, and it became hard for the drivers to compete with their rivals. After the Alfa Romeo partnership ended last season, the squad joined hands with streaming and betting platform Stake, which surprised many in the paddock considering Audi's already growing influence within the team.

The stagnation and the growing political infighting led to the departure of former Sauber CEO Andreas Seidl, and he was replaced by Mattia Binotto. Talking to Autosport, the former Ferrari man has revealed that the team was in a somewhat frozen stage where the entire focus was on 2026 and not much attention was paid to the present situation. He said:

"When I came in there was not only zero points, but really even no plans nor developments. And that’s what concerned me the most. Everything was only focused on ’26, but that was for me somehow a problem because I think that a team needs always to fight on track."

“It’s only by fighting, competing on track, that you can understand how good you’re doing and if whatever you’re doing is going the right direction. You need to understand performance. You need to understand weaknesses and strengths, and you need as well to address them. And that’s the real know-how of a team. When I joined in August, really, it was like a team that was almost frozen.”

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Things starting to look good for the squad soon to become Audi

Mattia Binotto, however, felt that there was a silver lining in all of this, as he felt that the late-season surge is going to help the squad go into the winter with a rejuvenated mindset. It did appear that for the most part in 2024, the squad that is soon going to become Audi would end the season without any points.

The late-season upgrades, however, helped, and outgoing driver Zhou Guanyu did score points for the team in Qatar. Talking about building the momentum, Binotto said:

“While making sure that we had the proper plans in our journey to become a top team in the future, we really needed to boost the team for improvement and possibly already during the current season. How important the current season was was not only about not finishing with zero points, because finishing 10th with zero or 10th with four points does not change much."

He added:

"But it was more for us to make sure that we have defined the proper direction of development for next season as well – and being energised through the wintertime. Today, I can see a team that is more convinced on what’s required, what’s necessary for next season, and hopefully we can further develop the current car.”

Audi will make its F1 debut in 2026, and at least for now, things are not looking up for the team, and a lot of work needs to be done to bring some level of respectability to the squad.