Binotto: Audi clear intention and objective to be an F1 winning team

Wednesday, 04 September 2024 at 14:02

Mostly out of the headlines, Mattia Binotto spoke about his new job as Audi’s Formula 1 chief operating and chief technical officer during the Italian Grand Prix weekend as he donned the green and black of Sauber Stake F1 Team which will morph into the German manufacturer's first foray into the top flight.

There is a certain irony that Binotto's next chapter in Formula 1, began at Monza, where the former Ferrari boss watched the local team take victory with Charles Leclerc. But that chapter is closed.

Binotto instead has the mammoth task of turning the pointless [yes, no points this season for Sauber] team into Audi's F1 project between now and the start of 2026.

Speaking to reporters at Monza, Binotto - who took on his new role on 1 August 2024 - was asked what he had found at the Swiss-based team: “In a couple of weeks, you cannot see everything. Certainly, you've got only a first impression of what you may find or see, both in Hinwil for the chassis, or in Neuburg for the powertrain.

“But I think there are great people. We've got a clear intentions and objectives, ahead of us to become a winning team. But certainly, there is much to do, that is the first feedback. We are competing against teams that have been for many years in F1. They are big organisations, up and down. And that is not our case.

“We need to ramp up in terms of people, in terms of organisation, in terms of tools, process, methodologies, facilities. We need to merge, certainly, with what we're doing in Hinwil together with the one we are doing in Neuburg on the powertrain.

“And it's about as well, culture and mindset, because to become a winning team, it's about changing our mindset towards what is required," explained Binotto.

Binotto: In future Audi has to be a winning team

Winning in F1 is not easy. There are no guarantees that money buys success. Well spent it can do the business but even teams with huge budgets. Toyota in the past and Aston Martin currently are examples. Even the trials and tribulations, ups and downs, of Mercedes, McLaren, Ferrari and even Red Bull this year, show that money does not always buy performance at the very top.

Wary of making predictions to when the project will become a winning force and (it is believed) tempering Audi CEO Gernot Doellner's expectations of quick success in F1, Binotto said: “We see our F1 project as really a long-term project.

"After I joined Audi, in September of last year, we did an evaluation of our project, and it ended up with the set-up we found, and also we maybe recalibrated our time path to a more realistic one. We can't tell details as we are still discussing several aspects of how to sort it out, but I think we are quite realistic when it comes to time," ventured Binotto.

The reality is that Audi have eight more GP weekends this season and next season to get their final package together for 2026. But the Sauber team's current status, last in the standings without a point scored by Guanyu Zhou and Valtteri Bottas in 16 attempts, means the VW brand's first serious foray into F1 begins from scratch and dead last.

Sauber Stake F1 Team are bottom of the standings and without a point in 2024

Valtteri Bottas, Stake F1 Team Kick Sauber C44; 2024 Spanish Grand Prix, Formula One World Championship

Binotto knows there's a great deal of work to be done but is ambitious “I think this is the team that has to become, in the future, a winning team. And the only way to do that is starting to move up, progressing. We need to train our muscles for the future.

“So, yes, I think we need certainly to improve. That's important for ourselves, that's important for the team. It's important for the brand. It's important for our partners. And we cannot somehow accept the current position.

“We cannot hide behind the fact that we have been last and second last in the Zandvoort race, and qualifying [here], the same positions some distance to the cars ahead. So, we need to put the effort into improving.

“We need to balance all the priorities and our efforts from the short to the medium and the long term. But I don't think certainly that our position today is a comfortable one for us at all. It's very painful.

“As I said, we need to train our muscles, and we need to improve because the solid foundations do not come in one day. It's a team that needs to do continuous progress every single day, step by step. So, starting from as soon as possible I would say.”

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