Inside Wheatley's Strategy: How He's Redefining Leadership Beyond Horner
Jun.13 - Audi-owned Sauber is already "better" in some areas than Red Bull.
That's the astonishing claim of Red Bull's former long-time sporting director Jonathan Wheatley - who amid the Christian Horner-related turmoil last year decided to accept an offer to be the new Audi team boss.
This year, Sauber is in full transition ahead of its rebranding as the Audi works team from 2026 and beyond.
However, the overall Audi F1 boss Mattia Binotto warned several days ago that the German marque may not emerge with a fully-competitive works engine next year.
Indeed, Sauber has spent several years languishing at the bottom of the standings - although Nico Hulkenberg's P5 in Barcelona offered some hope.
"We want to be fully operational by 2030," said team boss Wheatley.
"We have the most important ingredient for this - our people are not only capable, but also highly motivated and passionate about their work. That was a surprise to me," the Briton told Germany's Sport Bild.
"Because the past few years haven't been easy. It would be easy to let our shoulders slump, but the people are full of enthusiasm. We now need to channel this energy in the right direction."
It is believed some acrimony still exists between Wheatley's former boss at Red Bull, Christian Horner. The pair now go toe-to-toe in the F1 team principals' meetings.
When asked if he learned anything from Horner, Wheatley answered: "It wasn't just Christian - many people influenced me.
"I've had great managers and bad ones. I combine the experiences I've had with my time as a mechanic, sporting director, and ultimately with the things I'm experiencing now. I'm still learning every day.
"My most important rule is and always will be - meet and treat everyone the way you want to be treated. I know the responsibility I bear and I want to lead the way. Things will go wrong, but we mustn't let ourselves be deterred from our course."
What is relatively clear is that Wheatley brings a lot of experience from Red Bull about how to structure a truly title-winning team.
When asked what Audi can learn from Red Bull, he insisted: "It's about establishing clear processes. We need to make it clear to people where they stand, where their responsibilities begin and end, and what the reporting structure looks like.
"But by no means is everything bad. There are actually many things that are already running better here than what I'm used to at Red Bull."
One example, he explains, is: "The handling of traffic during qualifying.
Communication with the operations room at the factory during grands prix is also improving. These things can make all the difference and what I'm seeing gives me confidence."
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