Eddie Jordan tears into Audi F1 project with ‘fundamentally wrong’ approach taken

Ex-F1 team boss Eddie Jordan has a “question mark over Audi in the full stop” regarding their Formula 1 entry, citing a “fundamentally wrong” approach not to be based in England and major concerns over the Sauber team they take over.

Audi will arrive on the Formula 1 grid in 2026 for when the new chassis and power unit regulations come into effect, Audi to purchase Sauber and morph that entry into its works team.

Eddie Jordan expresses deep Audi concerns

The German brand has recently announced sweeping changes to its F1 project personnel, with ex-Ferrari stalwart Mattia Binotto taking over from Andreas Seidl at the head of their F1 operations, with chairman Oliver Hoffmann also shown the door. Red Bull’s long-serving sporting director Jonathan Wheatley meanwhile will become Audi’s team principal and head the new management team alongside Binotto.

However, Jordan is yet to be convinced on Audi’s F1 operation, expressing major concerns over the fact that the team will be based in Hinwil, Switzerland where Sauber are now, rather than the UK, an approach which he branded “fundamentally wrong”.

“I have a question mark over Audi in the full stop,” said Jordan on the Formula For Success podcast , where he appeared alongside co-star David Coulthard, a 13-time F1 race winner.

“You and I are particularly good friends with Allan McNish [Audi motorsport director of coordination] and we wish him well there, but that’s a big, big task he’s taken on, big, big operation. To build a car, to run it out of Switzerland, with manufacturing, it’s a big, big, big ask.

“When did you last see a Swiss or a German [based] team win a world title?

“We saw what Toyota did. They came in, they tried to do it that way and then it didn’t work. And the amount of teams that has done, it’s cost fortunes.

“And so it’s a big ask. And I have to say there is no better way to run a race car than through Britain and particularly in that area of Northampton, Oxfordshire and various other places. They’ve just got such a wealth of knowledge. They’ve just got such a mindset of being able to win or to achieving or getting the best.

“And the suppliers in the region understand the complexities and the timeframes that people are on there. Whereas, you know, you go out and you order a piece of machinery to be done in Switzerland. They will give you a timeline of maybe needing four days, four weeks, four months and there’s nothing you can do.

“Whereas if you’re in the UK, you would just sit on top of that supplier and say, ‘If you don’t do this, you just don’t get any more work. So you better drop everything and do it.’ And they work night and day to get it done.

“So that’s the philosophy that there is a racing culture, it’s in the DNA, and I think what Audi are doing is fundamentally wrong.”

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Bar the 2008 Canadian Grand Prix during their BMW alliance days, Sauber has not won a race in Formula 1 since its first entry at the 1993 South African Grand Prix, with Sauber the only team yet to score a point in F1 2024. This therefore is another major cause for concern for Jordan.

“It shouldn’t also go unnoticed that the team that they bought, which is Sauber, which I adore Peter Sauber [founder] as a person, but nice people don’t win anything,” Jordan continued, “the unfortunate thing is that Peter hasn’t won anything in terms of winning Grands Prix.

“But [what] he has failed to do even this year, which must be a big embarrassment for him, is that they are the only team without a point. And having said that, they are absolutely last. And that’s no great joy and I’m disappointed for them.”

At this point, Coulthard interjected and looked to point out that BMW-Sauber win in Canada, a one-two for the team as Coulthard shared the podium with winner Robert Kubica and Nick Heidfeld. That was Coulthard’s final F1 podium.

“Of course Peter, the team, has won in Formula 1,” said Coulthard, “my last podium I was alongside…”

Jordan would interrupt to claim that win goes on BMW’s record, not Sauber as an individual entrant.

“That’s not true,” said Jordan, “that was officially a BMW team.

“Peter Sauber, as a person as a team as an entrant, has not won a championship or has never won a race. BMW has won a race. Two totally different things.”

Parking that dispute, Coulthard said he does agree with Jordan that Audi’s best bet for F1 success would be to base themselves in the UK.

“I think that if you are really trying to be World Champions, a Grand Prix winner, then the UK has long established itself as being the backbone of where you would achieve that,” he said.

“Ferrari are the outliers of course, but that took a major European headcount to deliver that.

“But time will tell whether it [Audi] is successful or not.”

Ferrari’s 2008 Constructors’ crown marks the most recent example of a team based outside of the UK claiming F1 title glory.

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