Key: Audi aiming for 2027 to be the final product

The transformation is ongoing at Hinwil, who dropped the Alfa Romeo moniker at the end of the 2023 F1 season, to enter a period of two interim seasons where they will be called Stake F1 Team for 2024 and 2025, before Audi enter the sport fully in 2026.

Key, who lost his job at McLaren earlier in 2023, after a delivering a lame Papaya car, was given a fresh chance at Sauber by his former McLaren Andreas Seidl who left Woking first to join the Audi F1 project.

Speaking to the Motorsport Network, Key revealed details about the progress that is taking placing in the buildup to Audi's arrival in 2026, while also keeping in mind short term targets.

He said: "In terms of next steps, there's a very significant well-documented plan. We're already acting on it. And attracting all the right talent to the team to join some very good talent that's already there is obviously a priority that we're working on hard in the background.

"There is a lead time to people of course, with garden periods. So we're aware of that. We're certainly not waiting for that, there's a lot of stuff we can do now without any extra people and so on.

"But ultimately, to achieve our goals, we have to expand in all the key areas, and in fact in all areas. Everywhere has got to take a step up regardless of where we are in that process.

"So that's the short-term ambition, exactly what we're doing now, working closely with Andreas [Seidl] on that for '24, as well as the future. And then we'll see how we go.

"I think ultimately, we're probably not going to be the final product that we're aiming for until about '27 time really, because there is a lot to do," Key pointed out. "But we'll be in far better shape as we approach '26. And that will give us the opportunity to take the step forward we need to."

Key is not a stranger to the Hinwil-based outfit, as he had worked there between 2010 and 2012 as Technical Director.

He reflected on how it felt rejoining, he said: "The team is growing, it's actually a very young team, despite the fact that I feel very old now in Sauber. I felt quite young when I joined it before! But it is still growing.

"I think the period of stability it's had with the current major shareholder has been very good for it indeed. And it's been able to grow under that condition. And now it's got, of course, exciting future steps to take in the very near future as well.

"I think a lot of it is kind of consolidating what it has. I think being a relatively new member of the team now you can see where there's potential, you can kind of recognise there's a gap there that we can fill pretty easily with the talent we have in the team, or with the facilities we have on the team already," Key concluded.