“It’s not always a sprint,” – McNish channels Le Mans experience in Audi’s quest for F1 success

Audi’s new Racing Director Allan McNish has reiterated the German manufacturer’s target of fighting for world championships by 2030, channelling his Le Mans experience by saying, “it’s not always a sprint”.

Speaking with F1.com ahead of his first weekend in the Racing Director role following Jonathan Wheatley’s sudden departure from Audi, McNish opened up on his passion for what the marque is hoping to accomplish in Formula 1, as well as the team’s current challenges.

“It’s not necessarily a job or a job description, it’s about being able to be part of something that pushes a programme forward,” said the 56-year-old. “It’s a part of my heart that’s in it. Ultimately, we’re here to try and win. We’re here to try and be successful.

“I’ve been with Audi for 25 years in different roles and things so they know me.

“They know all of the parts of it from when I was a driver, Team Principal in Formula E, to when we were putting this particular project together as well.”

McNish has been a key figure in many areas of Audi’s motorsport programme in the 21st century, guiding the manufacturer to Le Mans success as a driver before ultimately taking charge of its F1 operation under Mattia Binotto.

The Scot spoke highly of Audi’s integration into what was formerly Sauber, as well as the evolution of the race team’s operations. The outfit, once ridiculed for bungled pit stops in 2024, is now building towards the goal of fighting for titles by the end of the decade.

“We’ve got a very strong team in terms of here at Race Operations, but also what Mattia has been building as well, both in Neuburg and Hinwil, has been something that I think supports extremely well,” elaborated McNish.

“Definitely having racing experience does help, because I can look at it through the eyes of Nico [Hulkenberg] and Gabi [Bortoleto], which, if I’m honest with you, I kind of always do. I can’t help myself with that one.

“At the same time, having the overview of seeing what is needed from a team perspective as opposed to just the driver perspective. And there’s sometimes that call is slightly different. And I think those experiences will definitely help.”

McNish also conceded that the power unit — which Audi has built in-house for the 2026 regulations — remains the team’s biggest weakness. Competing against established F1 manufacturers such as Mercedes-Benz and Ferrari, the challenge of starting from scratch without customer teams is immense.

“From the power unit side of things, that’s the biggest, hardest job without doubt,” he elaborated.

“Coming in for the first time there, there’s a lot of learning to be done. I don’t think we’re firing at our peak performance at the moment. We do have some work to do there, and we’re a little bit under in terms of performance.

“From the car point of view, I think they’ve done a very good job. Together I don’t know if many people were expecting us to be coming out of the blocks quite so strongly.

“The area where I’m actually happier is when I look at the people behind the scenes. If I look at the race team operations, if I look at what’s been built there and also back at the factory, it’s a young team that’s building together going forward. And what I know from my past racing experience, sports cars – Le Mans is a perfect example – it’s not always a sprint.

“Even though individual races are a sprint, a championship is about the endurance and the long-term vision of it. And there, I think we are building for the future pretty well.

“We have to be realistic, we’re the new kids on the block. We’re needing to learn quite a lot on and off the circuits, and so from that perspective, I think where we are at the moment is a very good start.”

Audi has scored points at one of the four race weekends in 2026 so far, regularly showing the pace required to reach Q3. However, a series of reliability issues and poor starts caused by its large turbocharger have hindered early progress.

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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.

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