Audi Team Principal Jonathan Wheatley was quick to praise Gabriel Bortoleto’s “historic” P9 finish in the first race of the season, as the Brazilian drove Audi to their first-ever F1 points in the team’s maiden Grand Prix.
Having taken over the Sauber outfit, Audi have also produced their own power unit for their debut season, and they were in the thick of the action from word go in Melbourne.
On raceday they only had one car competing – Nico Hulkenberg was unable to start after being wheeled off the grid with a loss of telemetry – but Bortoleto was able to turn a P10 grid slot into ninth at the flag, despite being on the arguably slower two-stop strategy.
“I think we spent the winter focusing on ourselves, not getting caught up in what other teams’ performance was like, not spending hours analysing everyone else’s runs in Bahrain. We just wanted to come here and execute a clean race weekend,” Wheatley said afterwards.
“We had some encouraging testing, and we came here feeling reasonably confident in terms of the performance of the car. But if you’d have said to me, I could swap anything and give you P9 in the race, I would have taken your hand off earlier in the week. So, look, I think it’s been a very encouraging first race for the team, a historic moment – Audi, Formula 1 car, scoring points in its first ever race.
“I feel the yin and yang that the other driver didn’t get a chance to start the race, but I think all in all, we can hold our head up high and say it’s a good start to our journey.”
Australia was a race of discovery for every team as they begin to battle in a new era of F1 regulations. For the drivers, they have had to learn a new way to extract performance from very different cars to last season – and Wheatley was quick to pay tribute to Bortoleto too, who fought back with fresh tyres late on to climb into the points.
“He’s a fast learner, and I’ve talked before about his work ethic, but I think I should mention it now because he spent the whole of January either on the simulator in Neuberg or in Hinwil. He based himself there.
“He could have stayed in Brazil for a little bit longer. He showed a tremendous work ethic. He’s working super hard with the engineers on the R26 and the AFR26. And once again, I’m sat here thinking that he’s developing really, really well as a driver and into, obviously, a future talent.”
Hulkenberg though was unable to start the race – and his issue was not connected to that which Bortoleto suffered at the end of Q2 in Qualifying when he rolled to a stop at the pit entry. Wheatley was unable to confirm exactly what had happened to the German’s car, simply stating that it “lost telemetry” on the way to the grid.
As for where the team go from here, Wheatley knows they are on the back foot in some ways, given they do not have any customer data to draw on as the only team running the brand new Audi power unit. That puts them at a disadvantage compared to the likes of Mercedes and Ferrari, who have multiple teams running their engines.
“[Sunday was] the first time we’ve had a chance to really look at what other teams are doing and how they’re doing it. We’re fast learners, and I’m looking forward to seeing how that information can be used to benefit us,” Wheatley said.
“As the cars get more sophisticated, the engines become more efficient, the racing becomes closer. I think we’re just at the early set of these regulations, and it’s just a case of developing our cars all the way through it, including the power unit.
“Every time we take these brand-new cars to a new track with new characteristics, we could shake the order up. And the order is closer, I think, in the midfield than any of us were expecting, but maybe we’ll be saying something different next week. It’s a World Championship. It starts with a set of technical regulations.
“Let’s get on the journey. It’s going to be fascinating.”
.webp?ssl=1 "Inside Ferrari and Red Bull’s innovative ‘Macarena’ rear wings used in Miami")
