Binotto to keep team principal role after Wheatley's Audi exit
Mattia Binotto, Formula 1 project manager at car manufacturer Audi, is pictured during the presentation of Audi's Formula 1 concept car R26 at the Audi Brand Experience Center at Munich Airport. Daniel Karmann/dpa Audi will not look for a new team principal after the sudden departure of Jonathan Wheatley, with their Formula One project head Mattia Binotto to fill this role not just temporarily. "We are not looking for a new team principal.
We will reorganize ourselves and I will have to reorganize the structure of the team," Binotto told Germany's Sky TV at the Japanese Grand Prix on Friday. Binotto is a former Ferrari team principal who has been at the helm of the Audi project since 2024. The German car maker entered F1 this season, having bought Swiss team Sauber.
Wheatley took the job a year ago then at Sauber, having previously worked at Red Bull. Audi claimed two championship points in the first race in Australia from Gabriel Bortoleto's ninth place. Audi announced his departure "for personal reasons" last week amid speculation that Wheatley will move on to Aston Martin and take over the duties of Adrian Newey as team principal.
"It all happened very fast. Jonathan said he couldn't committ for the long term for personal reasons. That is not for us to judge, we have to respect it.
As a consequence we at Audi decided to free him from his duties," Binotto said, adding that Wheatley "had done very well in the team. " Binotto said that a five-week break after Japan, due to the cancellation of the Bahrain and Saudi Arabia races owing to the Middle East war, is "a good opportunity" for the necessary restructuring.