As Audi prepares for its first ever season as a Formulation 1 producer, it has needed to transition from Sauber’s standing as a long-time Ferrari buyer crew to a full-works entity.
A part of that transition has concerned the union of the Sauber Engineering services in Hinwil and Audi’s powertrain services in Neuberg. Within the prelude to 2026, chief working officer and chief technical officer Mattia Binotto spoke of the necessity to set up everlasting conference-call services in each factories to make sure each camps had a transparent line of communication between the Swiss and German bases.
Binotto, who had oversight of each powertrain and chassis tasks in his oeuvre at Ferrari, believes that Audi’s Neuberg services are very a lot up-to-scratch for the calls for of recent F1. Conversely, the Italian believes that the present infrastructure at Hinwil, nevertheless, is in want of an replace and is missing house for the total scope of what Audi wants from the manufacturing unit.
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In years previous, Hinwil was thought-about one of many extra technologically superior services on the F1 grid; Kimi Raikkonen’s transfer to McLaren for 2002 is alleged to have at the very least partly funded the crew’s then-state-of-the-art wind tunnel and supercomputer, which finally led to BMW taking a majority shareholding between 2006-2009.
However, as groups have swelled in numbers throughout the previous couple of a long time, allied to Audi’s recruitment drive for its first season in F1, Hinwil is in want of enlargement. Binotto says making an attempt to shoehorn the crew’s incoming new simulator into the present services just isn’t an affordable situation.
“I feel in Neuburg the infrastructure is all what we’d like. We’re on the degree. It is a fantastic infrastructure. We have all of the dynos and the house required,” Binotto defined.
“In Hinwil, on the alternative, I feel nonetheless we’re missing house for what we’d like. We’ve ordered a model new simulator, however we’d like a constructing for it as a result of the simulator is large. So we have to construct that.
Audi F1 Staff R26 livery
Picture by: Audi
“We have to develop our manufacturing capability as a result of in F1 it is essential actually the composite to be manufactured internally for the pace, for the standard, for the price of the price range hole. So we have to develop manufacturing.
“We’d like extra desks for engineering. So general we’d like extra space. And along with Audi, as I mentioned earlier than, totally dedicated, we’re on the lookout for enlarging our buildings, our campus, and our present services.”
Regardless, Binotto believes that Audi has the substances wanted to achieve success in F1. The crew has set itself a five-year plan to be aggressive – though F1 historical past is plagued by failed five-year plans and 100-race targets to begin profitable repeatedly.
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Audi’s first precedence is to make sure that its new R26 is ending races, and that its powertrain might be developed into one that may problem the established producers – assuming it can not achieve this from the start. From there, the crew should proceed constructing upon that momentum.
“It’s at all times tough to match to the others I do not know the others,” he added.
“I do know who’s Audi, what’s Audi, and I feel now we have acquired a fantastic crew with nice vitality which is totally targeted on our future and our success.
“And I can inform you that I’m satisfied that we have got all what’s required to change into profitable at some point. And I’m fairly certain that we’ll be.”
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