Audi F1 chief Jonathan Wheatley admits team principal role felt “completely unattainable”

Audi Formula 1 team chief Jonathan Wheatley has revealed that he never planned on becoming a team principal after beginning his motorsport career as a junior mechanic at Benetton in the early 1990s.

Having joined Sauber as team principal in 2025, the Briton now heads into 2026 as the outfit transitions to Audi for the upcoming F1 season. The 58-year-old has reflected on his career to date and how he rose through the ranks, starting as a junior mechanic at Benetton before serving as chief mechanic at the same team and Renault, and as team manager and sporting director at Red Bull.

"This would be the least successful career in the world if I had, because it's taken me 34 years to get here," he told Motorsport Week when asked if he had always planned on becoming a team principal.

"No, back then, team principals were Ron Dennis, Flavio Briatore, Luca di Montezemolo. I mean, just to even think for a second that you could be a team principal was completely unattainable, because I generally have been happy working in a team environment.

"I never really saw myself doing the next step or the next step. I’ve just enjoyed every day in Formula 1. And like I said, I’ve been very lucky that people have identified me as maybe somebody who could take the next step. And then I think sometimes in your career, you get a significant phone call, and this was one of those."

Jonathan Wheatley, Team Principal of Stake F1 Team Kick Sauber

Photo by: Guido De Bortoli / LAT Images via Getty Images

He added: "And I’ve just been tremendously privileged to have been, at no point in my career, massively career motivated. I’ve just enjoyed working with whatever team, and I’ve been offered opportunities, and I sit here today as a Team Principal of what’s going to be the Audi Formula 1 project, which is one of the most exciting things I can believe I can say in a sentence."

Audi will enter the F1 grid in 2026 with the same driver line-up as Sauber in 2025 - Nico Hulkenberg and Gabriel Bortoleto - but will now be under the new Audi branding as a works team.