F1 Shock As Audi Splits With Team Principal Amid Aston Martin Replacement Buzz
It's a big change to make just two race weekends into the season
You'd think that teams would take more than a couple of race weekends to settle into a season before making some drastic changes, but that's not how things work in Formula 1.
Just two race weekends — two grand Prix and one sprint race — into the season, Audi has announced that it is parting ways with team principal Jonathan Wheatley, effective immediately.
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"As it continues its journey towards the front of the grid, Audi Revolut F1 Team will implement significant changes to its senior management structure," the team said in a statement, per Formula1.com.
"Due to personal reasons, Jonathan Wheatley will depart the team with immediate effect. The team thanks Jonathan for his contribution to the project and wishes him the best for his future endeavours."
This is a bit of a shock given that Wheatley only joined the team as team principal last April, when it was known as Stake F1 Team Kick Sauber.
Former Ferrari team principal and overall head of the Audi F1 project, Mattia Binotto, will take over as team principal. The team has had a solid start — especially when you consider they're running their own power unit — with Gabriel Bortoletto earning a pair of points in Australia.
But Wheatley's departure comes at an interesting time, as there have been rumors that Aston Martin — which has had a miserable start to the season — has wanted to move team principal Adrian Newey into a more technical role.
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It makes sense that, when your car and power unit have as many issues as Aston Martin and Honda currently do, moving one of the best technical minds in sports history into a role solely focused on the car is probably smart.
But with that move, Wheatley's name was routinely mentioned as a potential replacement for the team principal.
So, he has now left Audi. Does that mean an Aston Martin move is imminent?
Well, shortly after the Audi move, Aston Martin put out a statement reaffirming their belief in Newey and saying they don't comment on rumors and speculation… even though that's pretty much what they were doing.
So, we'll see where this goes, but it underscores that, as is usually the case in F1, even during a weekend without racing, there's no shortage of drama.