Audi F1 boss admits Chinese GP 'exposed our weaknesses'

Audi F1 Team Principal Jonathan Wheatley says the Chinese Grand Prix laid bare the team's ongoing struggles with power unit reliability and driveability, following a second consecutive race where only one car made the start. While the new works team has shown promising performance, critical issues are hampering its ability to consistently compete in the midfield.

Why it matters:

Audi's ambitious entry as a full works team was one of the biggest stories of the 2025 season, promising to shake up the established order. However, recurring mechanical failures and a car that is difficult to drive consistently threaten to derail that potential before it can be fully realized, highlighting the immense challenge of developing a competitive F1 power unit from scratch.

The details:

• For the second race in a row, Audi failed to get both cars off the grid. Rookie Gabriel Bortoleto was pushed back from the Shanghai grid with a suspected power unit issue, mirroring the problem that sidelined Nico Hülkenberg in Melbourne.
• Team Principal Jonathan Wheatley publicly apologized to Bortoleto and stated reliability is the team's immediate focus.
• Hülkenberg, effectively in his first full race distance of the year, struggled with driveability. Wheatley noted the Shanghai circuit "exposed our weaknesses," citing specific problems in Turn 6 where losing the engine's optimal operating window was hard to recover from.
• The team missed a potential points finish in China due to a combination of these issues and a slow pit stop, with Hülkenberg finishing 11th.
• Wheatley acknowledged that Mercedes and Ferrari currently have a "very usable package," but suggested other teams are also finding the current cars challenging to drive.

What's next:

Audi's path to improvement is steep but has defined avenues. The team is focusing its next development cycle on the power unit, with Wheatley confirming internal analysis shows clear areas for work.

• A key opportunity could come from qualifying for the ADUO (Additional Development and Upgrade Opportunities) system, which allows manufacturers lagging in performance to develop their otherwise frozen combustion engines at set intervals.
• However, Audi faces a significant data disadvantage by not supplying any customer teams, a gap Wheatley admits will take time to close. He stated the team is "a long way away from being able to support a customer" as it focuses on its own transition from a challenger to a competitive entity.
• The immediate goal is to solve the reliability gremlins and improve driveability to stop leaving points—and sometimes entire cars—on the table.