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Former Ferrari Formula 1 team boss Mattia Binotto is taking up a senior role in Audi's F1 programme, as part of a "realignment of the control structure" that comes with two major exits - including that of Andreas Seidl.
Binotto, whose two-decade stint in Ferrari ended with a four-season run as team principal, has been out of F1 since moving aside at the Scuderia at the end of 2022, when he was replaced by Fred Vasseur.
He will start now at Hinwil - where the Sauber team that will take on Audi's identity and power unit in 2026 (and that, coincidentally, Vasseur ran before joining Ferrari) is based - as early as August 21.
Binotto will serve as the chief operational officer and chief technical officer.
"Our aim is to bring the entire Formula 1 project up to F1 speed by means of clear management structures, defined responsibilities, reduced interfaces, and efficient decision-making processes. For this purpose, the team must be able to act independently and quickly," Audi CEO Gernot Dollner said in providing the justification for the move.
And as part of that move, both Seidl and Oliver Hoffmann will now be departing.
Seidl left McLaren to head up the nascent Audi project at the end of 2022, while Hoffmann stepped down from Audi's management board earlier this year to serve instead as chairman of Sauber's board of directors.
That both are now out is a remarkable development just a year and a half before Sauber becomes Audi and the Audi power unit designed to the new regulations makes its debut.
Seidl was known to be a major factor in bringing in Audi's first driver signing Nico Hulkenberg, who is arriving at Sauber next year on a multi-year deal.
But the programme has struggled to lock down a team-mate to partner Hulkenberg. It was long expected to be in line to benefit from Carlos Sainz being dropped by Ferrari and failing to get a satisfactory offer from a rival frontrunning team, but Sainz has been aggressively pitched at by the likes of Williams and Alpine, and it's the latter now seen as being in pole position for his services - which would come as a public vote of no confidence in the Audi project.
But such a decision would also easily pair with the on-track form of what remains the Sauber team for now. Its 2024 car, the green-liveried C44, was repeatedly let down by operational issues early in the season but has now established itself as probably the championship's weakest car, and is yet to put a single point on the board this season.
