Audi boss Jonathan Wheatley has revealed that the team will be firing up its first-ever Formula 1 power unit “before Christmas”, as it continues preparations for its debut next year.
The German marque will begin its F1 voyage in testing next month, with the first race in Melbourne just weeks later, completing its transition from Sauber.
Audi begins its long-awaited tenure right at the beginning of F1’s new era of vastly different new technical regulations, including the 50-50 hybrid power.
Electrification has been a cornerstone of Audi’s mission statement in motorsport across its more recent history, enhancing the excitement of the team’s forthcoming debut.
Whilst many will be winding down and thinking about their Christmas break before arriving in Barcelona for the first test, Wheatley is already set for more hard work.
“We’re bringing together a brand new power unit with a chassis for the first time and we’re firing it up before Christmas. I can’t remember ever doing that,” he told media including Motorsport Week after the Abu Dhabi Grand Prix.
“So there’s a huge amount to do between now and then, and that’s why we talk about this project to be challenging at the end of the decade, because it takes time, and I’m hoping, certainly, I have a little bit more time in my life when I’ve just got to concentrate on being Audi and not being two teams at the same time!”
Wheatley is one of the elder statesmen of F1 these days, and has seen a vast majority of things within the operations of a team, but he admitted that this step is an unusual one.
“It’s not normal in Formula 1 to do it,” he said. “It is normal for everybody this year, because basically we brought the whole winter testing programme forward, so all of your targets.
“I think, for me, to have a car ready at that time actually shows how well Sauber will have done.
“So we’ll actually have our definitive race chassis, our engine, all together, fired up with all the right people, before Christmas.”
‘Pressure on every department’ to get Audi F1 project underway
As with the new regulations, and the added factor of it being a new team, there is an obvious but understandable step into the unknown for Audi.
And for Wheatley, there will not be a definitive answer to how well the team is doing until at least a few races in, and he admitted to the pressure the team is under to be competitive, as well as create its new identity.
“You’re not going to know until Melbourne,” he said. “Perhaps not even Melbourne. Probably need to be four races into the season before we can actually build a picture of our performance.
“But this is an incredibly ambitious project; we have so much to do before January 1.
“I can’t begin to tell you; running the Formula 1 team this year has been one thing, getting ourselves ready to become the Audi Formula 1 team next year, you can imagine the expectation, the pressure on us, internally, on every single department.
“Every sign in the factory, every single thing, has to be different. Everything you see, feel, touch, and hear here in the circuit is different.”
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