Revealed: The two reasons why Red Bull lost Jonathan Wheatley to Audi F1 team

Last month, Red Bull confirmed Jonathan Wheatley will leave the squad in order to join the burgeoning Audi F1 project after serving gardening leave.

Wheatley will see out the season with Red Bull Racing before serving gardening leave, and is expected to take up his new role as team boss at Audi during the summer of 2025.

Helmut Marko: Red Bull couldn’t match Audi offers

With Red Bull re-signing several prominent names during recent months, including technical director Pierre Waché and aero head Enrico Balbo, a conspicuous absentee emerged as sporting director Jonathan Wheatley’s future became unclear.

Having been linked with the possibility of succeeding Christian Horner during the peak of the speculation regarding the team bosses’ tenure, this door shut as the shareholders rallied around Horner, but Wheatley was then linked as a possibility at both the Alpine and Audi F1 teams.

With Alpine turning to Hitech GP founder Oli Oakes, Audi confirmed Wheatley will take up the role of team boss with the German manufacturer next season as he and former Ferrari team boss Mattia Binotto take over the management of the Audi squad.

While Binotto will primarily focus on the factory and operations at Hinwil, Wheatley will concentrate on the sporting side and trackside operations – an area of expertise he’s carved out during his nearly two decades as team manager/sporting director for Red Bull.

Appearing on the Inside Line podcast, Red Bull consultant Helmut Marko said Wheatley’s departure will be a loss for the team but the fresh challenge that Audi represented was a career opportunity too good for Wheatley to turn down, and an opportunity which Red Bull could not match.

“Jonathan Wheatley was a very important part of the team,” he said.

“Our pit stops were the benchmark but not only that, his whole way, the approach, how mechanics were trained, and also the interaction with the FIA and so on…

“But he’s now in his mid-50s, and of course, he wanted to… he started as a mechanic, so it’s a very astonishing and a very proud career.

“He wanted to get a position which is more demanding for him and, unfortunately [for us], this Audi offer came, which we couldn’t match – either the position nor the money which was offered.”

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While Wheatley’s experience is something Red Bull will miss, Marko conceded, he pointed to the strength of the outfit as a whole as those who learned under Wheatley step forward to fill the breach.

“I personally understand that he’s taking this chance but, for sure, it’s a loss for us,” he said. “But, on the other side now, we have a very widespread team.

“We trained young people. We are educating them and so we have the possibility we will put the position of Jonathan on several persons. We believe we can handle the situation.”

Wheatley won’t be joining Audi for the best part of a year, meaning Binotto will be helming things at Audi until then, as he explained to media in Italy about how he will hold the fort until Wheatley is free to join him.

“I think there are no secrets,” Binotto said.

“We need to bridge from now to maybe July next year, certainly what will become Jonathan’s responsibilities are racing activities, something which I always used to do in the past, and I will certainly organise myself with an extra effort trying to cover it in the meantime.”

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