– After the first three races of the 2026 Formula 1 season, Audi is in eighth place in the World Championship. Although Gabriel Bortoleto only scored two points at the season opener in Melbourne, that is currently enough to leave newcomer Cadillac, as well as Williams and Aston Martin, behind.
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“I am happy, but not yet satisfied,” Mattia Binotto reveals to Sport Bild and explains: “I even hoped for more – but it’s not about what I hope for, but what is realistic. We are a new manufacturer starting under new regulations with a specially developed engine.”
“It won’t get much more challenging,” he emphasizes and clarifies: “If someone had told me before the season that we would score points directly in the first race and belong to the midfield of Formula 1, I would have signed that blindly. Because it is very easy to make mistakes in this racing series. But we obviously haven’t.”
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Nevertheless, it was a season start with mixed feelings for Audi. Nico Hülkenberg, in particular, had a lot of bad luck because he couldn’t even start the season opener in Melbourne due to a defect and then finished an ungrateful eleventh place twice in China and Japan.
Binotto is nevertheless keen to emphasize the positive, stressing: “That we could immediately fight for points was not to be expected. But it shows that we have laid a good foundation. The car works in its basic principles and has no serious problems. That is the most important thing.”
Binotto: We don’t compare ourselves to others
Critics, on the other hand, say that Audi is only in eighth place in the World Championship because Williams and Aston Martin are currently performing below their capabilities. “I don’t share that logic. It’s a competition that is always relative to others,” Binotto clarifies.
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“If we are currently faster, that is a fact. The others are welcome to look left and right, but we are only focused on ourselves,” says the Italian, who also took over the duties of team principal at Audi after Jonathan Wheatley’s departure in March.
While there is still “a lot of potential for improvement, especially with the engine,” Binotto admits. “But that’s no reason for unrest. It’s part of our journey, everything is going according to plan,” he says, explaining that Audi is only missing one aspect to compete at the very front of Formula 1: time.
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“We are a new team that needs to catch up in all areas. We have less experience in building a Formula 1 engine, we have an aging factory, and still around 150 fewer employees than the top teams,” explains Binotto.
“But we are working on it. We are hiring people, we are renovating our factory, and we are learning every day. But all of that takes time,” he emphasizes. However, he sees Audi on the right track, after predecessor team Sauber never got beyond the penultimate World Championship place in the past three years.
At least after the first races of the 2026 season, Audi is doing somewhat better in the World Championship.
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