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Audi has parted company with team principal Jonathan Wheatley with immediate effect, just two races into the team’s Formula One journey, in a move the German outfit said was driven by personal reasons.
The 58-year-old Briton had joined Sauber in April last year after spending almost two decades with Red Bull and remained in place as the team came under Audi control.
In a statement released on March 20, Audi said Wheatley would leave immediately, thanked him for his contribution to the project, and wished him well for the future.
Following Wheatley’s departure, Mattia Binotto, the head of the Audi F1 Project, will continue to lead the operation while also taking over the added responsibilities of team principal.
In Formula One, a team principal is the senior figure who runs the racing team and oversees its day-to-day direction.
The announcement marks a sudden change at the top of Audi’s project at an early stage in its time in Formula One, with the team having only just begun its campaign.
Wheatley has been strongly linked by specialist media with a possible move to Aston Martin, where he has been mentioned as a potential replacement for his former Red Bull colleague Adrian Newey as team principal.
At the same time, Motorsport reported that Newey would step down in order to focus only on technical matters. Aston Martin owner Lance Stroll addressed the speculation in a statement on March 20 and underlined Newey’s position within the team.
"I would like to reaffirm that Adrian Newey is my partner and an important shareholder," Stroll said.
He added that Newey was the team’s managing technical partner and said their relationship was built on a shared vision for the company. Stroll also stressed that Aston Martin does not currently follow the more traditional team principal structure used elsewhere in Formula One, saying that the approach was intentional.
The leadership change comes shortly after Audi picked up its first Formula One points. Brazilian driver Gabriel Bortoleto finished ninth in the season-opening race in Melbourne, giving the team its first points in the championship, while Nico Hulkenberg came home 11th in the second round in China.
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