Audi targeting Formula 1 world championship contention by 2030
F1 Teams NewsFriday, 29 May 2026 at 07:30
Audi Formula 1 boss Mattia Binotto says the German manufacturer firmly believes it can fight for Formula 1 world championships by 2030, despite admitting the transformation of Sauber into a title-winning operation remains one of the biggest projects in modern Formula 1.
The former Ferrari team boss laid out Audi’s long-term ambitions during an extensive appearance on Beyond the Grid, where he detailed the cultural, structural and technical overhaul underway at Hinwil and Neuburg as Audi prepares for its full factory Formula 1 entry.
Audi officially takes over Sauber from 2026, building its own power unit operation in Germany while expanding the Swiss-based chassis team into a genuine front-running organisation.
Binotto admitted the challenge is far bigger than simply building a faster car: “When you look at our challenge, it's about transforming a team. Sauber at the time had been a great team, a fantastic private team in Formula 1, competing for the best they could do, but it was more a matter of participating.”
“Obviously not having the ambition to win and to be the winning team in Formula 1,” explained Binotto, revealing that Audi’s biggest obstacle is changing the mentality inside an organisation that spent decades surviving rather than fighting for championships.
He said: “It's really changing habits, mindsets, behaviours to the people that were used not to spend, not to invest, to do the best out of maybe not little money, but the money you had, while here now it's a different ambition with all the means and resources which are required,” he said.
“So sometimes, if for many years, maybe 20 or 30 years, you were used to simply not spending, and now you need to change your mentality, that's the most difficult challenge. I think that's really our challenge at the moment. It's about cultural transformation.”
Detailed road map to 2030 Formula 1 glory
Binotto revealed Audi already has a detailed roadmap towards championship contention, with 2030 remaining the target despite the scale of the rebuilding effort: “2030, when we agreed and discussed it on the grid as an objective, it seemed far away.
"I remember it was Monza 2024 when we somehow declared it. It was in a press conference with our CEO Gernot Döllner, and we set 2030 as the objective, five or six seasons by then," recalled Binotto.
While many in Formula 1 view the target as hugely ambitious given Audi’s current position, Binotto insisted the company genuinely believes it can reach the front by the end of the decade: “I think in Formula 1 everything has to happen immediately. Fans' expectations, partners' expectations, shareholders' expectations – already five or six years is a long time.”
“So I know it's a very challenging one. But I think it's the right one as well. Each single objective has to be a challenging one. But on top of that, I believe it's possible. I believe in it. It's not that we simply put an objective ahead just to have some more time. I believe that by 2030 we can do it," Binotto declared .
A major part of Audi’s rebuild centres around expanding the Hinwil operation, Binotto admitted: “If you look at what would be required, if the benchmark is the top teams of today, we need more space, we need more buildings, we need more expansion, and that's our challenge." If you look where we are, there is not much space, not even a parking slot for our employees.”
Binotto: It's a very young team, I'm the oldest
The Audi boss also stressed that recruiting and developing young talent is central to the project rather than relying on superstar signings to shortcut the process: The majority we are hiring are young graduates, which is our investment for the future.
“I'm pretty sure that the young graduates in two or three years' time will be the foundations of our winning team," Binotto said and dismissed the idea that a single Adrian Newey-type signing could transform Audi overnight.
“Today the complexity of our product, from the power unit to the chassis, is such that it's not the single person we believe will make the difference,” he explained. "It will be more a team effort in terms of competence and skills.”
Audi’s transformation also extends to the team culture itself, something Binotto repeatedly referenced throughout the interview: “If you come today into our team in Hinwil or in Neuburg, the average age you will see is very, very young. It's a very young team. I'm somehow proud of it. I'm the oldest.”
The immediate goal for 2026 is not necessarily podiums or victories but establishing the mentality of a serious manufacturer operation capable of eventually winning titles.
“To become competitive is really what we have set ourselves as an ambition and target objective for the season. So it's not the number of points, it's not the number of maybe Q3s or whatever positions in the championship. It's the mentality transformation,” Binotto explained.
Can Audi make the 2030 win target?
Binotto continued: “To become competitive means that every single person in the team understands what it means to compete and be Audi, not anymore, as we said before, to be self-satisfied by participating, but to leave no stone unturned, move forward, raise the bar and the challenge, and become better each single race.”
He also identified 2028 as a major milestone year in Audi’s long-term climb toward the front, particularly on the power unit side, “If we are measuring our gaps to the top competitors today, maybe the biggest gap is more from the power unit performance, power unit controls and drivability.
"We believe there is a significant step which is required to close the gap. When it's about the power unit, the lead time of developing an engine is longer than the aerodynamics. So that's why I'm saying maybe the next significant step cannot be a short step," Binotto.
Despite the enormous scale of the project, Binotto reiterated Audi’s ambition remains absolute: "I think as Audi we can make it, and I've got full trust in the team to achieve our objective."
Time will tell if the five year plan does come to fruit in 2030. Whatever the case, that Binotto is talking long-term commitment to Formula 1 and title ambitions by Audi is refreshing. But even more so is the willingness to go the route of what is best for the sport, even if it mean a return to V8s.
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