Allan McNish points out the power unit as Audi's biggest challenge

Audi took over the Sauber F1 operation in 2026 and turned it into their works team while building their first-ever F1 power unit based on the 2026 regulations.

The sudden departure of Jonathan Wheatley as Team Principal meant McNish was moved from managing the driver program into the Racing Director role, reporting to the Audi F1 boss Mattia Binotto starting from the Miami Grand Prix.

In an interview with Formula 1's official website over the weekend in Miami, his first at Audi's pit wall, McNish gave an initial evaluation of the current situation within the team.

He said: "We've got a very strong team in terms of here at Race Operations, but also what Mattia has been building as well, both in Neuburg and Hinwil, has been something that I think supports extremely well.

"Definitely having racing experience does help, because I can look at it through the eyes of Nico [Hulkenberg] and Gabi [Bortoleto], which, if I'm honest with you, I kind of always do. I can't help myself with that one.

"At the same time, having the overview of seeing what is needed from a team perspective as opposed to just the driver perspective. And there's sometimes that call is slightly different. And I think those experiences will definitely help," he explained.

But the 56-year-old Scot admits Audi has much work to do to become competitive on the power unit side, an area which bit them hard over the Miami Grand Prix weekend.

McNish added: "From the power unit side of things, that's the biggest, hardest job without doubt. Coming in for the first time there, there's a lot of learning to be done.

"I don't think we're firing at our peak performance at the moment. We do have some work to do there, and we're a little bit under in terms of performance.

"From the car point of view, I think they've done a very good job. Together, I don't know if many people were expecting us to be coming out of the blocks quite so strongly.

"The area where I'm actually happier is when I look at the people behind the scenes. If I look at the race team operations, if I look at what's been built there and also back at the factory, it's a young team that's building together going forward. And what I know from my past racing experience, sports cars—Le Mans is a perfect example—is it's not always a sprint.

"Even though individual races are a sprint, a championship is about the endurance and the long-term vision of it. And there, I think we are building for the future pretty well," McNish concluded.

Audi are currently ninth in the 2026 F1 Constructors' Championship with two points.