Unfulfilled Promises
Lately Audi announced immediately the arrival of Mattia Binotto and then that of Jonathan Wheatley. The German company, which will debut in F1 in 2026, has therefore signed the former Ferrari team principal and the current sporting director of Red Bull, who will remain in his position alongside Christian Horner until the end of 2024.
To make ‘room’ for this couple were Oliver Hoffmann and Andreas Seidlreportedly engaged in an internal struggle to take full control of the F1 project, a battle that has led to the departure of both, although the reasons are not connected. Audi wanted to formalize a ‘2×1’ cut simply to formalize in one fell swoop a double ‘failure’ in terms of managerial choices.
In the preview of a more in-depth report that will be included in the next issue of Business F1 the magazine in question revealed that behind the departure of Oliver Hoffman there could be much more than an unwise and unproductive management of the approach to the debut in F1. Audi, in fact, was fined 750 thousand euros by the FIA because according to agreements made between the parties the German manufacturer should have participated in the World Rally Championship starting from 2024 as ‘compensation’ for concessions obtained in relation to Audi’s adventure in the Dakar, a raid won at the third and final attempt with Carlos Sainz senior in the 2024 edition. The head of the Audi off-road program, Sven Quandt (left without a racing program after the end of the three-year Dakar project which did not result in a commitment to the WRC), reported Hoffmann’s conduct to the German judiciary for which there could be consequences in terms of judicial penalties and for this reason he was fired by Gernot Dollner, CEO of Audi.
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