Audi announce Allan McNish as new Racing Director

Audi have announced that former F1 driver and Le Mans legend Allan McNish will become Racing Director, heading up trackside operations from the Miami Grand Prix as a replacement for former Team Principal Jonathan Wheatley.

McNish will assume the newly created role, following an evaluation by Audi of its senior leadership structure that proceeded the departure of Aston Martin bound Wheatley. The 56-year old Scot reporting to CEO and Team Principal Mattia Binotto.

Prior to taking on the Racing Director role, McNish was the Head of Driver Development with Audi – a role that he will continue to undertake even with his new responsibilities.

His affinity with the German marque seeing him involved with the F1 project since its inception, though before then McNish was Team Principal of the Audi Formula E squad and Director of Coordination for the Motorsport division of the Audi Group. As well as twice a 24 Hours of Le Mans winner with Audi in 2008 and 2013.

“Allan brings an exceptional combination of racing experience, technical understanding and leadership to this role,” said Binotto in a statement from the team.

“He has been a central part of the motorsport structure of Audi for many years and, in his roles within Audi Revolut F1 Team since its start, has played a key role in shaping our preparation for Formula 1, not least with his work around technical partnerships.

“This appointment strengthens our trackside leadership at a crucial stage of our project. Allan’s ability to connect all performance-related areas – from sporting operations to driver development – will be fundamental as we continue to build our team.”

McNish added: “It is a privilege to take on the role of Racing Director for Audi Revolut F1 Team: this is a marque that means a lot to me and it is an honour to be able to represent Audi and our partners on the most prestigious stage in motorsports.

“This is an exciting challenge at a pivotal moment in the history of Audi and Formula 1, and I am looking forward to contributing even more directly to our trackside performance.

“The project we are building is ambitious, and my focus will be on ensuring that all aspects of our race operations are delivering at their most competitive level and continuously improving.

“Together with our Driver Development Programme, to which I remain fully committed, my focus will be on implementing the building blocks for our success, under the direction of Mattia and the Board of Directors.”

Audi’s foray into Formula 1 so far has yielded two points in three grands prix and the outfit sitting eighth overall in the constructors championship. Capable of showing Q3 pace in qualifying, though thwarted by poor starts due to their large turbocharger and worse reliability.

Want more F1Chronicle.com coverage? Add us as a preferred source on Google to your favourites list for the best F1 news and analysis on the internet.

Written by

Jawad Yaqub

An eCommerce Specialist by day and reporting on F1 by night. Jawad is passionate about motorsport, having provided accredited F1 coverage for more than a decade. Live blogging (almost) every grand prix too since 2014, as well as articles on the Supercars Championship. Also keen on sustainability, photography, collecting vinyl, (trying to) expertly barbeque and learning to Dad.

More articles by Jawad Yaqub →