{"id":566345,"date":"2026-03-26T20:52:59","date_gmt":"2026-03-26T20:52:59","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/566345\/"},"modified":"2026-03-26T20:52:59","modified_gmt":"2026-03-26T20:52:59","slug":"oh-sht-how-nico-hulkenberg-found-out-about-jonathan-wheatleys-audi-exit","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/566345\/","title":{"rendered":"\u201cOh, sh*t\u201d \u2013 How Nico Hulkenberg found out about Jonathan Wheatley\u2019s Audi exit"},"content":{"rendered":"

Nico Hulkenberg<\/a> has revealed he only found out about Audi<\/a> team principal Jonathan Wheatley\u2019s departure when his mother shared a news story with him.<\/p>\n

It was announced last Friday that Wheatley was leaving the Switzerland-based outfit \u201cdue to personal reasons\u201d, just a year after joining it. Motorsport understands the Briton is set for an Aston Martin move to replace Adrian Newey as team principal<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Read Also:<\/p>\n

Strangely, Audi’s drivers make it sound like only one of them was warned about the announcement in advance.<\/p>\n

Asked if it had been a surprise to him, Gabriel Bortoleto<\/a> replied: \u201cTo be honest, no, because I think inside the team we are very clear with this type of thing so it’s not something that got me as a surprise.<\/p>\n

\u201cI’m not going to lie, it happened very quickly \u2013 he joined last year. But again when you have personal things to put in place, that’s the priority.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"Gabriel <\/p>\n

Gabriel Bortoleto, Audi F1 Team, Jonathan Wheatley, Audi F1 Team Principal<\/p>\n

Photo by: Anni Graf – Formula 1 via Getty Images<\/p>\n

But Hulkenberg, on the other hand, said he was unaware until the news came out.<\/p>\n

\u201cI found out together with the world,\u201d the German said. \u201cI found out on Thursday. Like, last week Thursday, when it popped out.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cActually, I was in the sim that day and my mum sent me an article. I’m like between runs looking at my phone, I’m like, \u2018Oh, shit\u2019.\u201d<\/p>\n

Still, Hulkenberg believed the decision made sense. \u201cIf there is a fundamental problem with one of the central leaders of the team, then you have to take action,\u201d he commented. \u201cAnd obviously here there was a problem.<\/p>\n

\u201cI don’t know the exact details, I haven’t really spoken to him in depth yet. But if there’s an issue, you also need to act and react \u2013 otherwise that’s no good either.\u201d<\/p>\n

Both drivers praised Wheatley\u2019s contribution over the past 12 months \u2013 Hulkenberg described him as \u201cvery involved\u201d, \u201cvery hands-on\u201d while Bortoleto said he learned alongside a well-liked team principal who \u201cdid a very good job in structuring things here\u201d \u2013 \u201che was good [while] it lasted,\u201d the Brazilian added.<\/p>\n

\"Jonathan <\/p>\n

Jonathan Wheatley, Team Principal of Stake F1 Team Kick Sauber and third place Nico Hulkenberg, Stake F1 Team Kick Sauber celebrate in parc ferme<\/p>\n

Photo by: Bryn Lennon \/ Formula 1 via Getty Images<\/p>\n

Now, what impact will Wheatley\u2019s exit have on the team? Head of Audi F1 project Mattia Binotto is taking over Wheatley\u2019s responsibilities until the outfit\u2019s future structure is defined \u201cat a later stage\u201d. Hulkenberg is adamant that the Italian can lead the squad successfully and that the foundations have been laid for the future regardless of Wheatley\u2019s presence or absence.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt’s not a setback,\u201d the veteran insisted. \u201cA Formula 1 team is made of many people. You know, we need strong people.<\/p>\n

\u201cBut with Mattia obviously still a leader, it’s not like we’re without leadership, without structure and without the plan. So whilst it has changed unexpectedly, everything else on target is as we planned and intended before.<\/p>\n

\u201cSo on the operational side, on a race weekend, I don’t think it’s going to change too much. Formula 1 teams, and generally Formula 1, it’s bigger than one person.\u201d<\/p>\n

Additional reporting by Jake Boxall-Legge and Filip Cleeren<\/p>\n

Photos from Japanese GP – Thursday<\/p>\n

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– The Motorsport.com Team<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Nico Hulkenberg has revealed he only found out about Audi team principal Jonathan Wheatley\u2019s departure when his mother…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":566346,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[573],"tags":[64,40856,63,817,277594,813,816,7695,107978,852,278566,85,278565],"class_list":["post-566345","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-formula-1","tag-au","tag-audi","tag-australia","tag-f1","tag-f1-japanese-grand-prix","tag-formula-1","tag-formula1","tag-gabriel-bortoleto","tag-japanese-gp","tag-nico-hulkenberg","tag-shtu201d-u2013-how-nico-hulkenberg-found-out-about-jonathan-wheatleyu2019s-audi-exit","tag-sports","tag-u201coh"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/566345","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=566345"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/566345\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/566346"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=566345"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=566345"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=566345"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}