The former Sauber team has undergone a gradual transition over the past three seasons since it was purchased by Audi, and the restructuring process was not a straightforward one, with a few management changes along the way.
Over the past 16 seasons, Sauber used customer “plug and play” Ferrari engines and gearboxes. The challenge Audi faced was to create its own power unit from scratch at its Neuberg facility, as well as building a transmission, and get it all to gel with the chassis.
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It was a huge task. Honda has shown just how difficult it has been even for an established F1 manufacturer to get it right under the 2026 rules, and yet from the start of winter testing, Audi has looked fairly solid in the midfield.
Team boss Mattia Binotto admits that the PU is still lacking power, but there was also an element of caution in terms of the approach to how it was run in testing. Australian GP qualifying was always going to be the litmus test, and Bortoleto showed the potential by taking P10 in Q1 and repeating that in Q2.
Alas, as he drove back to the pits at the end of the session, the Brazilian had a driveissue that left him coasting to the pit lane, and he just failed to make it back, which meant he couldn’t do Q3, and had to settle for 10th on the grid. His teammate Nico Hülkenberg backed him up in 11th.
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“I just spent half a lap trying to engage gears,” said Bortoleto. “My gears were failing. The first time we had a reliability problem this weekend. Still strong, qualifying Q3 first time with Audi. I didn’t expect that. I don’t think many people did, and such a shame I couldn’t fight for more in quali, because I generally think that we had potential.”
He added, “I’m happy with what the team has achieved. From now on, we keep working. There’s still a lot of things to be fixed, but I’m proud of everyone that has been working in the last two, three months, trying to put this car in one piece and make it work.”
Hulkenberg was also upbeat, despite not having an entirely clean session.
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“Positive, very positive, actually,” said the German. “In Q1, we were fighting a lot of fires in my car with things that weren’t working how they’re supposed to, so it was pretty hectic and interesting. I didn’t really get a rhythm, and only really had one normal good, clean lap in Q2, which put me where I am. So, all things considered, I think we’re not in a bad spot. And I think we’re obviously competitive within the midfield.”
Given that an Audi F1 power unit hadn’t run on track until January, it was an impressive performance overall.
“I think the way we ran in winter testing, which was extremely conservative, sort of suggested to us it wasn’t looking too bad,” technical director James Key told Road & Track. “But there’s still work to do. A massive hats-off to the team as we’ve progressed that over winter testing into the first race. Particularly, Neuberg, they’ve done a brilliant job of going from no track data to a position where we can run reliably. Fingers crossed, you never know what could happen.”
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A finish with at least one car on Sunday would be a decent achievement – and points would be even better.
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