Nico Hulkenberg<\/a> and Gabriel Bortoleto, who will both be driving for Audi F1 when the team switches over in January. The drivers were joined by the three leaders at the helm of the Audi F1 project: team lead Mattia Binotto, team principal Jonathan Wheatley, and Audi CEO Gernot D\u00f6llner, who all say the team \u2014 and car \u2014 is primed to be a legitimate contender on the grid.<\/p>\n\n\t\u201cThis is a three-phase plan,\u201d an optimistic D\u00f6llner told reporters at the Munich event. \u201cThe next two years we will be challengers and those are our challenger years, and then from 2028 on, we can be real competitors. And from 2030 on,\u201d he declared, \u201cAudi will challenge for the championship.\u201d<\/p>\n
\n\tWhile there are 24 races around the world in 2026, Audi\u2019s F1 team will be headquartered in three locations in Europe, with the power unit and gearbox being developed in Neuburg an der Donau in Bavaria; the race cars worked on in Hinwil, Switzerland; and a technology office set up in Bicester, UK. While much of the current Kick Sauber team will move over to Audi in the new year, Wheatley says there is already a palpable excitement in the air for the new team.<\/p>\n
\t\tEditor\u2019s picks<\/p>\n
\n\t\u201cThis [transition] has been much more open-minded than I expected,\u201d he says. \u201cAudi\u2019s investment in the team and the belief in the team has been incredible, and the team is starting to believe in itself now, in terms of building momentum and moving forward.\u201d<\/p>\n
\n\tWheatley references Bortoleto\u2019s recent crash at the young Brazilian driver\u2019s home race at the Sao Paulo Grand Prix, as proof that all is gelling behind the scenes. Though the rookie F1 driver barreled into the wall during the sprint, the team was able to rebuild his car for the next day\u2019s race. \u201cRebuilding Gaby\u2019s car was not from tools and what not, but it came from spirit,\u201d Wheatley says. \u201cThat\u2019s very much the underpinning of the success of this project.\u201d<\/p>\n
\n\tThe first official test drives with the new Audi Formula 1 cars will take place behind closed doors at the end of January, before the livery is unveiled to the public during testing in February in Bahrain. The Audi F1 team makes its debut at the first race of the season, in Melbourne in March. That\u2019s also when the new F1 regulations go into place, with an emphasis on lighter cars, sustainable hybrid power units, and narrower tires, among other rules. Binotto says the team is equipped and well-briefed on the changes, and will be ready when the five lights go out.<\/p>\n
\t\tTrending Stories<\/p>\n
\n\t\u201cThis is the biggest change in the last decade but overall we think it\u2019ll be great for racing,\u201d Binotto says, adding that \u201chaving full control over the power unit and chassis gives you a competitive advantage.\u201d As for Audi\u2019s outlook in F1: \u201cWe accept complexities because we are passionate about winning,\u201d Binotto says. <\/p>\n
\n\t\u201cThat\u2019s how you survive in Formula 1,\u201d Wheatley adds. \u201cYou have a challenge and you deal with it. You keep pushing relentlessly forward.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"If you purchase an independently reviewed product or service through a link on our website, Rolling Stone may…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":292004,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[441],"tags":[49,48,578,576,577,5023,5024,82],"class_list":["post-292003","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-formula-1","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-f1","tag-formula-1","tag-formula1","tag-noads","tag-rs-recommends","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/292003","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=292003"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/292003\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/292004"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=292003"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=292003"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=292003"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
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