Wheatley: Audi getting to know us, we're getting to understand them

Sauber will become Audi in 2026 with Mattie Binotto and Wheatley leading the project, and there have always been doubts whether the big wigs at Ingolstadt know the effort and patience required to succeed in F1.

Aside from Mercedes, other car manufacturers' experiences in F1 have been disappointing, with Toyota springing to mind as the Japanese carmaker spent loads of money without achieving a single win in the top flight.

Renault's recent handling of the situation at Alpine offers another example of how not to succeed in F1, but will that be the case with Audi as Sauber become their works team in 2026, the German carmaker even producing their own power unit?

It has always been known that managing an F1 operation is very different from running a car company, as the former requires swift decision-making, not the ball and chain of bureaucracy found within car manufacturing companies, especially big ones like Audi.

But Wheatley is confident Audi can make their F1 project work; he said: "There are methodologies that you have to take on board. They [Audi] are getting to know us. We're getting to understand them.

“But the bottom line is, Gernot Döllner [CEO of Audi AG] has described us as a speedboat, and we're off doing Formula 1, and it's our area of expertise.

"We have the full support of the board. It's fantastic, I have to say. And I'm really enjoying the way we're going about our working at the moment.

"If you look at why Mattia [Binotto] and I are sitting here now, you can imagine we had all of these conversations along the way, but it was really this inspirational approach that Gernot laid out to me 12 months ago, which is why I'm here now.

“These are very, very clever people. They know exactly that this is an area which you can't apply all of the same philosophies that you do in the group.

"But we still represent the brand. And the most important thing, and where the biggest collaboration is, is making sure that we communicate and we represent the brand in the right way," Wheatley concluded.

(Quotes from Motorsport.com)