Trouble brewing at Audi’s top level?

There’s rumours of trouble brewing at top management level at Audi’s Formula 1 program, with Chief Representative Oliver Hoffmann and Sauber Group CEO Andreas Seidl at odds and, allegedly, in a battle to get rid of each other.

The team’s inability to attract Carlos Sainz to join from the start of 2025 and the risk of being left with no good alternative to partner Nico Hulkenberg from next year, has increased the tension inside Audi’s top management and, certainly, the fact Sauber is the only team yet to score a point this year isn’t helping improve the internal athmosphere.

It’s more or less clear to everyone that Sainz will accept Alpine’s offer, as soon as Flavio Briatore can guarantee there will be Mercedes Power Units in the back of the French cars and that is likely to lead Valtteri Bottas to Williams – as negotiations between the Finn’s management and James Vowles are now at full steam – with Esteban Ocon prefering to go to Haas rather than join Sauber, according to sources close to the Frenchman.

That’s why Seidl is now trying to secure Liam Lawson’s services, but the Kiwii’s future is in Red Bull’s hands and he is likely to be retained, as Yuki Tsunoda’s team mate, for VCARB in 2025.

Should that happen, Seidl’s options are limited to struggling veterans, like Magnussen and Ricciardo, current charge Zhou Guanyu or unproven younsgers like Felipe Drugovich, Paul Aron, Gabrielle Bortoletto or his own junior driver, Zane Maloney. And none of those prospects is likely to please Audi’s Board of Directors.

Behind the scenes there’s an ongoing battle between Hoffmann and Seidl. According to German sources, Hoffmann is planning to sack Seidl and replace him with Aston Martin’s Mike Krack, who would become Audi F1’s Team Principal, with the German becoming Sauber Group CEO as well as Audi’s Chief Representative.

At the same time, according to the same sources, Seidl is putting pressure on the Board of Directors to sack Hoffman, get all the powers he has as Chief Representative and also appoint Krack as Team Principal!

But Hoffmann also seems to be under pressure from higher-placed Audi managers, as German press has reported that the company’s Chief Executive, Gernot Doellner, wants to sack the engineer, blaming him for the stalled development of the the road car projects.

With so much instability at the top it’s no wonder Carlos Sainz and his management are not too keen on joining Audi’s Formula 1 project. At an even lower level, in the technical department, there are signs some key members of the team are now actively looking for jobs elsewhere, disenchanted with the lack of progress made in the last 18 months, since Seidl became the team’s CEO

Photo by Andy Hone / LAT Images

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