In the first part of an exclusive interview with Motorsport Week, Jonathan Wheatley has spoken in-depth about what has helped shape him into the Audi Formula 1 boss he is today.
One can easily argue that Jonathan Wheatley is a modern renaissance man of Formula 1, and therefore, it makes perfect sense that he was chosen to be the first Team Principal to lead the new Audi F1 team on the grid in 2026.
Coming from humble beginnings as a mechanic at Benetton to his Sporting Director role at Red Bull to leading the Sauber team, looking closely at Wheatley’s impressive F1 career, you can see how his extensive background in motorsports has helped prepare him for the role of a lifetime as the first Audi F1 team head boss.
But peel back the layers of who Jonathan Wheatley is as a person beyond his on track F1 success and accomplishments, and you will find how the passion of a ‘car guy’ – restoring classic cars – has helped shape him into the Team Principal he is today at Audi, that also offers a glimpse into what his future reign at the German marque could look like.
Wheatley’s interest in “motor racing”, as he likes to call it, began at such an early age that one might believe that it’s in his DNA.
“For me, I said before, I’m a car guy, so I’ve grown up in racing since I was a kid, at the British Grand Prix, as a baby, on my mother’s lap,” he divulged to Motorsport Week in an exclusive interview.
“My father raced cars from through my childhood, and I’ve spent my entire life at the circuit. And then during that period, of course, every bit of motorsport I could watch, I took it in.”
And Wheatley’s fondness of cars especially for Audi classic models also captured his heart at an early age. “Everything I could read about motor racing I took in, and there was an incredible Audi Group B era, you know? And even before that, just the normal Quattros and just watching those cars in the forest and then following these monster Trans Am cars that they built. And if you’re a kid, seeing cars with flames coming out of the exhaust is exactly what you need to motivate you towards motor racing…So I think out of all the opportunities I had to further my career, I mean, I was drawn towards Audi.”
How karting and classics bit Wheatley to give him the racing bug
When it comes to his deeper connection to cars and racing, Wheatley’s true love for motorsports stems from his hands-on experiences as a child with his father.
“So like as a kid, my father raced cars, and I grew up around motor racing and in motor racing, it’s a meritocracy. You just have to stand on your own two feet,” he said. “So I was probably doing tyre pressures on my dad’s car when I was eight or nine years old, understanding how things work. I was always very good with my hands, working with things. I was taking things apart, building model aircraft, model cars, trying to understand how suspension works. Just always this personal knowledge.
“And I started racing karting, 100 CC karts, and nobody else was going to prepare my kart in between races and my brothers, so I did that. So I kind of grew up working with my hands and loving fixing things. Maybe there’s a sort of thread that runs through. I love fixing things, making things better. I get a tremendous amount of enthusiasm from that. And I’ve had all the modern stuff. I’ve had super fast hyper cars and super cars on the road and all these things. But I find nowadays the things that my father had a passion for classic cars as well. He had some amazing classic cars. He’s in his late 80s now, so not always easy to drive them. And I think I love design classics.
“And so I have a Porsche 911 that was born the same month and year that I was, which is the main reason for me buying it. I work on that car myself. I like to improve it. You know, the wiring… can’t tell you the things that I’ve done to that car to make it better. I bought an original Audi Quattro. Very low mileage car, beautiful. [I] Love driving that, surprisingly modern car to drive. I’ve just got the winter wheels and tires for that, because I drive my cars, they don’t sit in the garage, and I’ll be driving that to work over the winter as well, on winter tires. I’m looking forward to the first snow. I’m going to get some winter tires for my classic 911 as well, and I’m going to go and enjoy myself at the weekends driving over the top of these mountains.”
And what is it that excites Wheatley the most about restoring the cars? Well, it’s a combination of the driving experience and the use of modern technology you could say is similar to that of taking on a new Team Principal role for an F1 team.
“I like the driving experience, and when you have an intense job, like I do, anything that completely absorbs you and stops you thinking about all of the other things that are going on in your head at any particular time. And these classic cars that require real driving, you have to anticipate things every gear change you could be punished if you get it wrong. You have to really finesse everything about driving.
“And I think it’s like a back to basics, because I have this fantastic Audi RS six that I drive on a day to day basis. The performance of that car is extraordinary, but it’s easy. You don’t think about driving. You can just drive. And I think also the fact that I can do something to these older cars, to modernize them a little bit, to make the driving experience a little bit better, you know, use a little bit of modern technology here and there, just to make things I don’t know, a little bit safer from time to time, like putting seat belts in, for instance, because they didn’t have that. And it’s just a passion for cars that I always have.”
Wheatley ‘tremendously privileged’ to have risen from humble mechanic to Audi F1 boss
When you look back at Wheatley’s F1 career you can see how the choices he made have come full circle ultimately leading him back to his childhood passion tied to Audi. Beginning his F1 career in 1991 as a humble mechanic at Benetton credits his time at the Enstone-based team for his strong team philosophy mentality that he brings to the table at Sauber. When asked about how his evolution from a mechanic to a team principal has shaped him throughout his F1career, Wheatley reflected on how critical the Benetton environment was to laying down the solid teamwork foundation that he utilises today.
“It’s interesting, isn’t it?” he pondered. “Because when I first joined this sport in 1991, the whole Formula 1 team was about 100 people. The traveling team was about 22 people. It’s the same amount of people having a pit stop now was the entire team, including marketing, catering, everything, you know. So it was very different…”
“And you worked sort of almost on an insular basis, and one of the things I noticed in the 1990s and one of the things that we did really well at Benetton, was really believe in the team philosophy. So I guess I grew up in that environment understanding how strong a collective group of people were compared with just the individual. Didn’t always like the attitude you were often in competition with the car the other side of the garage. So I guess that forms part of who you are as well.”
Wheatley’s strong teamwork approach as a Team Principal also resembles a stark contrast to the cutthroat attitude that is often used in a modern F1 team’s philosophy for drivers that is often built around the notion that your number one competition on track is your team-mate, who you must beat in the driver championship standings every season.
“And I’ve just been tremendously privileged to have been, at no point in my career, massively career motivated. I’ve just enjoyed working with whatever team, and I’ve been offered opportunities, and I sit here today as a Team Principal of what’s going to be the Audi Formula 1 project, which is one of the most exciting things I can believe I can say in a sentence” he said.
Although, Wheatley worked with some legendary and infamous bosses such as Flavio Briatore in his early F1 days, the Brit never imagined himself following in their footsteps. In fact, Wheatley chose a different path in his F1 career focusing on team work roles that led him to be a be a chief mechanic at Benetton then onto Sporting Director at Red Bull.
And at the beginning of his F1 career, Wheatley didn’t have his sights on being a Team Principal. “This would be the least successful career in the world if I had, because its taken me 34 years to get here,” he said. “No, back then, Team Principals were Ron Dennis, Flavio Briatore, Luca di Montezemolo [sic. Di Montezemolo was Ferrari President]. I mean, just to even think for a second that you could be a Team Principal was completely unattainable, because I generally have been happy working in a team environment.“
Wheatley carved out his own path and rising through the ranks in F1 on his own terms instead of following in the footsteps of these powerhouse team bosses. “I never really saw myself doing the next step or the next step. I’ve just enjoyed every day in Formula 1. And like I said, I’ve been very lucky that people have identified me as maybe somebody could take the next step. And then I think sometimes in your career, you get a significant phone call, and this was one of those.”
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