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Red Bull’s Wheatley to become Audi F1 team principal
Red Bull Racing sporting director Jonathan Wheatley will leave the team at the end of this year to become the new team principal of the Audi Formula 1 project.
Wheatley has been part of Red Bull for the past 18 years and is deemed a key figure in the team’s management, having previously been team manager before becoming sporting director. With the opportunity to step up and become a team principal with the future Audi F1 project -- the Sauber-run team currently racing as Stake -- he will see out the rest of this season before moving in 2025.
“It has been a long and successful relationship with Jonathan, over 18 years,” Red Bull team principal Christian Horner said. “His contribution to six world constructors’ titles and seven world drivers’ championships, first as team manager and latterly sporting director, will forever be a marker in our team history.
“Jonathan will remain in his position until the end of the 2024 season, as the team seek to defend both our world drivers’ and world constructors’ titles successfully. A period of 'gardening leave' will follow in 2025.”
Wheatley’s departure follows that of Adrian Newey later this year as well as senior figures Rob Marshall and Dan Fallows recently moving to McLaren and Aston Martin respectively, and Horner says there will be a new team organization put in place that will be publicly revealed soon.
“Everyone at Oracle Red Bull Racing and Red Bull Technology wish him all the best in his new role and would like to place our thanks to Jonathan. Red Bull Racing have tremendous strength and depth and this provides opportunity to elevate others within the team. We will announce a new team structure in the coming weeks.”
The arrival of Wheatley has yet to be officially announced by Audi, but will see him working under former Ferrari team principal Mattia Binotto who was recently unveiled as the new chief technical officer and chief operating officer of Sauber Motorsport AG.
Chris Medland
While studying Sports Journalism at the University of Central Lancashire, Chris managed to talk his way into working at the British Grand Prix in 2008 and was retained for three years before joining ESPN F1 as Assistant Editor. After three further years at ESPN, a spell as F1 Editor at Crash Media Group was followed by the major task of launching F1i.com’s English-language website and running it as Editor. Present at every race since the start of 2014, he has continued building his freelance portfolio, working with international titles. As well as writing for RACER, his broadcast work includes television appearances on F1 TV and as a presenter and reporter on North America's live radio coverage on SiriusXM.
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