Sauber getting a kick out of ‘unambitious’ new boss

Stake F1 Team Kick Sauber – or Sauber to you and me – has been going through a challenging period.

The arrival of Audi as a works team in Formula 1, taking over Sauber and completely rebranding the constructor, feels imminent now as we’re a little over six months away from the start of 2026. But news of that takeover was made public in October of 2022, and since then there was a sense of limbo.

There were plenty of ideas of how to smoothen the transition, but it was such a big one that there was no single way to do it effectively, and the current team appeared to be suffering from a performance point of view as focus was on the wider changes, and where investment needed to be directed.

After Andreas Seidl came and went as CEO of Sauber, and Mattia Binotto was installed as COO and CTO, there was still room for a new team principal.

At the start of April, Jonathan Wheatley took up the position after a 34-year career in F1, but it wasn’t a position he necessarily felt like he had been building towards.

“I've said it before and nobody believes me: I've been largely unambitious!” Wheatley says. “Because I joined Formula 1 as a mechanic on the front end of a car at Benetton and then Michael Schumacher came along. I was only going to do a couple of years then Michael came along, so thought I'd stay a few more years.

“I stayed a few more years and got promoted and then before I know it I've been there for 16 years and I was race team chief mechanic and back in an era with people like Andy Stevenson and what have you, where you had a lot of responsibility as race team chief mechanic.

“Then I got offered an opportunity to go to Red Bull and I really agonized over that, because a team for me is like a family and so to leave it you have to really, really be sure of what you're doing. Then all of a sudden I was a team manager and then a bit later I was a sporting director.

"Around about Miami time last year I started getting some calls about the opportunity to further my career, maybe doing something a little different and my wife and I sat down and had a look at it and said, ‘What do we do? Do we just keep ticking the days down where we are? Do we take one of these opportunities in the UK or do we do this [at Sauber]?’

“Honestly from the moment I had a conversation with (Audi chairman) Gernot Döllner about it I was so excited about this Audi project that really the decision made itself.

“Originally my wife Emma was going to stay in the UK and I was going to sort of commute backwards and forwards, but I think we both said, ‘Well, in for a penny, in for a pound’ and so now we're Swiss residents and so's our dog.”

Wheatley had sown deep roots at Red Bull, but says the opportunity the Sauber/Audi offer presented was too good to pass up. Andy Hone/Getty Images.

Wheatley was well-known as sporting director at Red Bull and his departure from the team came at a time of power struggles and inner turmoil in Milton Keynes. It could have been seen as jumping ship from a team in decline, but Wheatley says there was no other offer that came across his desk that could convince him to leave.

“I think it's about the opportunity, and I think I can understand why people would look back on what was happening there [at Red Bull] at that time and think that was all part of it. Maybe it was, but not consciously.

“I mean, honestly, it was about being given the opportunity of a lifetime and to put yourself in this situation where every single day you'll be completely out of your comfort zone for a really long time. And for me to really get my teeth stuck into something again, really getting involved in a project where I could make a huge contribution. So it was really it was all about the opportunity that Audi offered me.”

The move sees Wheatley take on the role of team principal, but Binotto’s presence is crucial. It’s not a simple task to run an F1 team at the best of times, let alone one that is transitioning to include its own power unit department, multiple bases in different countries, and racing on 24 weekends per year.

“We both report to Gernot Döllner, so we we're leading this team side by side. And it is a Venn diagram," Wheatley says. "Mattia's side of the business is to bring together the car, bring together chassis and power unit like never before, and build the strongest possible race car and the fastest race car. Then when that leaves the factory, my team takes over that, and on top of commercial and communications we run that side of the business.

“Mattia and I have known each other since 2006, when Ferrari was an engine supplier to Red Bull. We got on great and we always have done. We agreed from the very beginning that like all Venn diagrams, there's a bit where the circles overlap and that we would be totally unprecious about those areas – we would just do what we think the best thing is for the team. I'm a very happy man eight weeks into this project working with somebody that I like and we're supporting each other.”

Hulkenberg outrunning Lewis Hamilton's Ferrari for fifth in Spain was a morale boost for Sauber, but Wheatley knows there's a lot of progress still to be made. Sam Bloxham/Getty Images

Wheatley is only going to be a happier man now, as we were sitting down in his office in the Sauber motorhome prior to Sunday’s excellent fifth-place result for Nico Hulkenberg that moved the team up two spots to eighth in the constructors’ championship. While that highlight has boosted the mood at Hinwil, the 58-year-old was already warning there will be both highs and lows to help the team progress and become title-challenging in future.

“On a personal level, I'm relentlessly driven. I always have been," Wheatley says. "I’m thinking about the next race, the race after that – how can we improve? And I sort of try to bring everyone on that journey with me as well.

“Look, we're not happy with how we are at the moment. We know where we need to get to and we're on a journey to get there. It's not like a dead straight line between here and there, otherwise I could go to the board and say, ‘Well, we'll finish here' and we're just showing a route path to it. There's going to be some ups and downs along the way, and progress you're not always going to see it on the track.

“Operational systems working better – you don't see that on the track. People communicating better and parts get into the circuit a little bit quicker – you don't see that in terms of track performance. So the journey won't obviously be visible all the time but we'll know that we're on it and we'll know that we're hitting the targets.

Behind-the-scenes developments aim to position the team higher by the time the Audi branding arrives. Sam Bloxham/Getty Images

“We haven't got everything actually in place in terms of foundations now, but it's planned and it's all coming. This is where we're starting from, and it's not a bad starting point, honestly. We’ve got a fantastic facility we're looking at expanding – building a campus, getting bigger. We're recognizing there's talent in the UK that can be onboarded through a center in the UK, and I think we'll be talking about that a little bit more [soon].

“This is Audi. We’re not messing around. We're here to win races and win championships. This is what's driven me for the last 34 years and the ability to go from where we are now to where we need to be, I don't doubt that we're able to deliver it. I absolutely, genuinely, honestly believe that we will be up there with the very best and winning races and championships.”

Didn’t he say he was unambitious?

“In terms of my competitiveness that has not died away," he insists. "Probably the only person I know who is more competitive is Adrian Newey, actually.

“That's what drives you – to be the best of the best all the time. This sport pulls in some incredibly talented people and I still learn every day from the team that I have around me. There's always something new to learn, always something new to drive you forward.”