- Audi’s F1 project will be led by Jonathan Wheatley.
- Wheatley is a former mechanic turned team principal with championship-winning experience.
- Wheatley grew up in racing and tinkered with his classic Audis and Porsches.
Audi will officially join the grid for the Formula 1 season this year. But while the German brand is known for its precision engineering, the team won’t be led by a squeaky-clean strategist afraid of getting his hands dirty.
The Four Rings project will be led by Jonathan Wheatley, a true gearhead. Wheatley worked his way up the ladder from the pit garage floor. He started out as a humble junior mechanic at Benetton in the early 1990s and made his mark as he rose through the ranks of the Enstone-based team.
After winning two constructors’ championships with the team and being promoted to chief mechanic, the Buckinghamshire-born Briton moved to the ranks of Red Bull Racing as team manager and sporting director.
Although he clearly thrives in one of the most technologically demanding motorsport series, he has a deep obsession with the oily and unsafe world of classic cars. And that’s how you know he is Real one of us: Group B rally.
Wheatley’s rally roots
Photo by: Audi
Speak with Motorsport weekWheatley explained why the switch to Audi came so naturally after a childhood powered by Quattro all-wheel drive.
“Everything I could read about auto racing, I took it in,” he said. “And there was an incredible Audi Group B era, you know? And even before that it was just the normal Quattros and just looking at those cars in the woods, and then following these monstrous Trans Am cars that they built.
“When you’re a kid, seeing cars with flames coming out of the exhaust is exactly what you need to motivate you towards motorsport… So I think despite all the opportunities I had to further my career, I was drawn to Audi.”
“As a kid, seeing cars with flames coming out of the exhaust is exactly what you need to motivate you into motorsport.”
Wheatley left Red Bull at the end of 2024 and joined Sauber as team boss as it prepared to take over Audi. But as the son of a racing driver, he learned the tricks of the trade before he even set foot in a car.
“I was probably measuring the tire pressure on my dad’s car when I was eight or nine years old,” he continued. “Understanding how things work. I was always very good with my hands and working with things. I took things apart, built model airplanes and model cars and tried to understand how suspension works.”
When he started karting, this knowledge became incredibly valuable. “No one else was going to prepare my kart between races, and my brothers, so I did that. So I grew up working with my hands and loved fixing things. Maybe there’s some kind of common thread running through it. I love fixing things, making things better.”
The dream garage
Photo by: Porsche
While Wheatley currently drives an Audi RS6 daily, a car he says delivers ‘extraordinary’ performance, he admits new machines are almost too capable.
“It’s easy. You don’t think about driving. You can just drive. And I also think about the fact that I can do something to these older cars, modernize them a little, make the driving experience a little better, use a little bit of modern technology here and there…”
That’s why his pride and joy is a Porsche 911, built in the same month and year he was born (May 1967).
“[That was] the main reason I bought it. I work on that car myself. I enjoy improving it. You know, the wiring… can’t tell you what I did to that car to make it better.”
Of course he also drives an Audi Quattro every day.
Photo by: Audi
“Car with very low mileage, beautiful. [I] I love driving that; surprisingly modern car to drive. I just have the winter wheels and tires for that, because I drive my cars, they are not in the garage, and I also drive them to work in the winter, on winter tires. I’m looking forward to the first snow. I’m also going to get some winter tires for my classic 911, and I’m going to have fun driving over the tops of these mountains on the weekends.”
Wheatley is our kind of person. He is someone who thrives on the driving experience and not the performance.
“I love the driving experience, and when you have an intense job like me, everything that completely absorbs you and keeps you from thinking about all the other things going on in your head at any given moment.”
Taking Motor1s: The Audi F1 team is in good hands with Wheatley at the helm. A true car enthusiast and experienced motorsport expert, Wheatley’s knowledge could help Audi make a serious impact in F1 in its first season.
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