{"id":549803,"date":"2026-03-20T21:19:10","date_gmt":"2026-03-20T21:19:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/549803\/"},"modified":"2026-03-20T21:19:10","modified_gmt":"2026-03-20T21:19:10","slug":"audi-f1-boss-wheatley-exits-just-two-races-into-season","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/549803\/","title":{"rendered":"Audi F1 Boss Wheatley Exits Just Two Races into Season"},"content":{"rendered":"

Jonathan Wheatley has relinquished his position as Audi\u2019s Formula 1 Team Principal, just two races into the new season, and after less than a year at the helm.<\/p>\n

Wheatley, who only joined Audi in April 2025 following nearly two decades as Red Bull\u2019s Sporting Manager, worked in tandem with Audi Head of F1 Project Mattia Binotto.<\/p>\n

But Wheatley has left, effective immediately, for personal reasons, amid expectations that he is to transition to Aston Martin.<\/p>\n

Related Story<\/p>\n

In a statement Audi outlined that Binotto will assume Wheatley\u2019s Team Principal role and that \u201ca future structure will be fully defined at a later stage.\u201d<\/p>\n

Wheatley is expected to need to serve a period of gardening leave. <\/p>\n

Aston Martin is enduring a troubled start to the campaign, with an underdeveloped chassis, but its main problem has been vibrations from Honda\u2019s unreliable and underpowered new power unit.<\/p>\n

That has limited mileage and meant neither Fernando Alonso nor Lance Stroll have yet finished a grand prix in 2026.<\/p>\n

\"f1NurPhoto\/\/Getty Images<\/p>\n

Wheatley is expected to move to Aston Martin F1, which has yet to finish a grand prix this year.<\/p>\n

Managing Technical Partner Adrian Newey, who was also appointed as Aston Martin\u2019s Team Principal in late 2025, is understood to have been involved in the process of trying to recruit Wheatley. <\/p>\n

Wheatley is also believed to have favored a return to the UK, having been based in Switzerland with Audi.<\/p>\n

The idea is that Wheatley can lead Aston Martin trackside, and undertake front-facing tasks such as media and fan activities, which would free up Newey to better direct his focus and energy on technical matters. <\/p>\n

Related Story<\/p>\n

Newey only replaced Andy Cowell in late 2025, who took on the new mantle of Chief Strategy Officer, with his efforts redirected to improving Aston Martin\u2019s partnership with Honda.<\/p>\n

Aston Martin Executive Chairman Lawrence Stroll issued a statement on Friday due to \u201ccurrent speculation surrounding Adrian Newey\u2019s role in our team\u201d as he \u201cwants to set the record straight.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cAs Executive Chairman and Controlling Shareholder, I would like to reaffirm that Adrian Newey is my partner and an important shareholder. He is AMR\u2019s Managing Technical Partner, and he and I have a true partnership built on a shared vision of success for the company.<\/p>\n

\"f1Kym Illman\/\/Getty Images<\/p>\n

Adrian Newey.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe do things differently here, and while we don\u2019t currently adopt the traditional Team Principal role that you see elsewhere\u2014it is by design.<\/p>\n

\u201cAs the most successful engineer \u200bin the history of the sport, Adrian\u2019s primary focus is on the strategic and technical leadership where he excels. He is supported by a highly skilled Senior Leadership Team to deliver on all aspects of the business, both at the Campus and trackside.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe are regularly approached by senior executives of other teams who wish to join Aston Martin Aramco, but in keeping with our policy, we do not comment on rumor and speculation.\u201d<\/p>\n

Elsewhere Friday Mercedes has announced the appointment of Bradley Lord as its Deputy Team Principal.<\/p>\n

Lord, who has spent years at Mercedes, most prominently as its communications executive, has taken on an increased role in recent seasons and has now officially slotted in as Wolff\u2019s #2. <\/p>\n

\"Lettermark\"<\/p>\n

U.K.-based Phillip Horton started covering Grands Prix while still at university and swiftly deemed that writing about Formula 1 and the behind-the-scenes machinations was much more engaging than reading centuries-old novels. Degree gained, he went on to cover the sport full-time from 2014 and is as intrigued and excited by the destinations Formula 1 visits during its lengthy annual world tour as the racing itself. Phillip joined Autoweek in 2021 and while he has just about learned to spell in American English he has yet to find anywhere in America that makes a proper cup of tea.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Jonathan Wheatley has relinquished his position as Audi\u2019s Formula 1 Team Principal, just two races into the new…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":549804,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[441],"tags":[49,48,782,213805,784,578,576,577,1642,213804,82,184740],"class_list":{"0":"post-549803","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-formula-1","8":"tag-ca","9":"tag-canada","10":"tag-content-type-news","11":"tag-contentid-09286c09-a554-4090-b8a8-b1a76811e155","12":"tag-displaytype-standard-article","13":"tag-f1","14":"tag-formula-1","15":"tag-formula1","16":"tag-locale-us","17":"tag-shorttitle-audi-f1-boss-wheatley-exits-two-races-into-season","18":"tag-sports","19":"tag-subsection-formula-one"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/549803","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=549803"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/549803\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/549804"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=549803"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=549803"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=549803"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}