Audi plays long game after rough 2026 F1 start

Audi says its difficult start to the 2026 Formula 1 season is not the real measure of the project, with project leader Mattia Binotto and driver Nico Hülkenberg insisting the priority is building a full works operation and improving a power unit created from scratch.

After nine races, Audi sits ninth in the constructors' championship with six points, all scored by Gabriel Bortoleto. Hülkenberg has yet to score and has retired from four grands prix, as the team's opening months have been hit by repeated reliability problems.

Those setbacks have included a car fire on the way to the Miami sprint grid, a gearbox failure at Silverstone and a bizarre shutdown in Barcelona when a stray piece of gravel struck the emergency kill switch on Hülkenberg's car.

Hülkenberg told RacingNews365 the difficult start was always likely because key parts of the project were being built in-house for the first time. "Yeah, I think the season is going okay," he said. "I think the start was tough, but I think it was always clear that it would be a bit of a headwind, especially at the beginning."

He said the former Sauber side of the team already had Formula 1 experience, but "especially on the engine, gearbox and hydraulics side, we did everything from scratch and by ourselves for the first time." Despite the early failures, he said, "I really feel we've already progressed a lot."

Binotto is taking the same view from management level. He said Audi is not judging its progress by isolated points finishes but by "the sustainable construction of all important structures." As he put it, "We know that it takes time to build a solid foundation," and that means growing the team's size, capabilities, competence and infrastructure before it can consistently fight at the front.

That is why Audi's internal signs of progress matter more to the team right now than the standings. Ahead of the Spanish Grand Prix in Barcelona, it introduced its first engine upgrade of the season, fitting both cars with new internal combustion engines and turbochargers with hardware changes aimed mainly at improving driveability rather than adding a major power boost.

Hülkenberg said the update reflected the speed of Audi's response to its problems. Looking back to winter testing in Bahrain and the early rounds, he said "the car has evolved a lot, especially on the power unit side," and added: "While we don't have too many points, there has been a lot of progress" that is "not really reflected in the championship yet."

He said Audi had learned quickly from each run and each issue, adding that having an upgrade ready for Barcelona was both necessary and encouraging. Even so, more work remains, with the power unit still regarded in the article as one of the weakest on the grid.

Binotto said that reality is exactly why Audi is looking beyond short-term results. He said the project needs patience and a medium- to long-term focus, and while he would not give a fixed timeline, he did not fundamentally reject previous suggestions that a new works team could need around five years to establish itself at the front. "At the end, we need to be realistic," he said. "This is the team that we are today."