– Formula 1 newcomer Audi scored points in three consecutive races just before the summer break, but still considers itself behind the established teams.
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Audi project leader Mattia Binotto said in Spa-Francorchamps in an interview with Sky: “One must not forget: Even though Audi is now ahead of the team, we are still in the middle of the transformation from Sauber.”
“Just six months ago, the team competed under the name Sauber. Therefore, our internal capacities are still limited. We are continuously expanding them for the future, but currently do not yet have the same personnel and technical resources as the big top teams.”
What is known about Audi’s employee numbers
Racing teams traditionally do not provide concrete information about their employee numbers. An Audi spokesperson only confirmed upon inquiry that the team has “grown significantly” compared to Sauber times.
According to Blick, the starting base was “around 600 employees” and is likely outdated by now – not least because Audi maintains two additional Formula 1 locations in Neuburg an der Donau and Bicester in England, which the Sauber team did not have. Blick therefore estimated Audi’s employee number at the end of 2025 to be “around 1,200 people.”
Thus, Audi is likely still behind Ferrari and Mercedes in terms of personnel, whose staff is each estimated to be more than 1,200 employees.
The decisive factor is technical development
But in modern Formula 1, the decisive factor is not so much the number of employees, but their effectiveness: How well does a team manage to make the car faster over the course of the season? “Ultimately, it is about efficiency and the budget cap,” explained Binotto.
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“I believe that all teams face similar challenges regarding development under the budget cap. You have to decide how much development you can afford within a season – while already keeping the 2027 season and the future in mind. And the faster a team can develop, the better.”
What Binotto is explicitly “confident” about at Audi
Technically, Audi is making progress, said Binotto: “We are making very good progress in the wind tunnel. That is an extremely positive signal and makes me confident about the future.” (Photo series: The Audi milestones in Formula 1)
Photo series: The Audi milestones in Formula 1
From Audi’s perspective, the decisive factor according to Binotto is above all the impression new parts leave on the racetrack. This impression was “fortunately very good” with the Spielberg update, Binotto explained. This was further reinforced during the race weekend in Spa-Francorchamps.
“We conducted additional comparison tests and compared various aero packages again. However, this was not because we had doubts. It simply belongs to a clean development process to collect as much data as possible and compare it with the results from the wind tunnel and simulator. Only in this way can it be ensured that all tools point in the same direction.”
“The new package delivered exactly the expected performance,” said Binotto. “For us, this is again a very positive sign. Because it confirms that we have taken the right path in vehicle development and that the correlation between wind tunnel, simulator, and track works.”
Points for Audi three times in a row
Since the Spielberg update, Audi achieved two eighth places and one ninth place in the Grands Prix in Silverstone, Spa, and Budapest, collecting ten of its twelve World Championship points so far. In the Formula 1 Constructors’ Championship, Audi has thus overtaken the traditional team Williams and is in eighth place out of twelve teams at the summer break.
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