The 2026 System 1 season will mark Audi’s very first marketing campaign on the planet championship, because the famed German automobile model tackles a brand new problem.
Taking on the established Sauber squad, Audi is coming in with its personal engines and an unchanged driver line-up.
Because the staff unveils its new livery on Tuesday in Berlin, let’s see what we will anticipate.
What’s new at Audi?
If something, an id. Audi acquired a stake within the Sauber outfit in 2022 and accomplished its buy in 2024.
However the staff itself is way from new. Sauber joined F1 in 1993 as a Le Mans-winning squad and has been ever current within the midfield all through its existence, together with its BMW and Alfa Romeo eras: 614 grands prix have led to at least one pole place and one victory, each courtesy of Robert Kubica in 2008.
Audi is subsequently banking on continuity whereas investing within the staff’s amenities, upgrading the Hinwil manufacturing facility and opening the Audi Motorsport Know-how Centre. The latter is geared toward ‘enhancing and increasing the staff’s technical capabilities’; the brand new infrastructure is positioned in Bicester, United Kingdom, making it simpler to draw coveted engineers in the event that they don’t have to maneuver their households over to Switzerland.
Audi F1 Group shakedown
Picture by: Audi
What is the largest problem to Audi?
Whereas the Hinwil-based outfit itself isn’t new, Audi is becoming a member of as a brand new energy unit producer, and that’s a tall order if Honda’s expertise as F1’s most up-to-date new provider is something to go by.
However the Japanese model’s struggles from 2015 to 2017 occurred because it joined the world championship one 12 months into the brand new laws, which received’t be the case this time.
Audi was a part of the negotiations concerning the brand new engine laws in the previous few years and is hoping to capitalise on its expertise with hybrid and electrical equipment in WEC, rally-raid and System E.
Nonetheless, it received’t be overly shocking, given how comparable the brand new energy items are to the 2014-2025 spec, if Audi and fellow new entrant Purple Bull Ford considerably path their counterparts by way of efficiency.
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A constructive signal was that Audi fired up its 2026 automobile – that includes its brand-new engine – as early as 19 December.
What is the strongest asset to Audi?
A robust asset is Nico Hulkenberg. A veteran of 250 grands prix, which makes him the fourth-most skilled driver on the grid, the 38-year-old German additionally has barely extra expertise than his friends on the vitality entrance, as he was a part of the crew that received the 2015 Le Mans 24 Hours on the wheel of a Porsche 919 Hybrid.
Nico Hulkenberg, Audi F1 Group
Picture by: Audi
The 919’s powertrain admittedly wasn’t fairly near 2026-spec F1 energy items, however vitality administration expertise will all the time be helpful, and each little helps.
In the meantime, 21-year-old Gabriel Bortoleto will search to enhance on an encouraging rookie season in F1.
What is the objective in F1 2026 for Audi?
Audi is aiming to combat for world titles by 2030, however it’s an extended street to get there. CEO Gernot Doellner described the 2026 season as a “challenger 12 months” – in different phrases, trying to be as aggressive as attainable and hopefully enhancing on the earlier marketing campaign.
In 2025, Sauber completed simply ninth within the constructors’ championship, however collected an honest haul of 70 factors, with Hulkenberg scoring a podium end at Silverstone.
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