Mattia Binotto appears unfazed by the prospect of Sauber's neon green and black cars languishing at the back once again in 2025, as Audi's full takeover looms for 2026.
"We are at the beginning of the journey to transform Sauber into the Audi Formula 1 team and ultimately into a top team," Binotto, who rejoined F1 in 2024 after leaving Ferrari in 2022, told Auto Motor und Sport.
Leading the transition, he aims to "fight for the world championship in 2030."
"We have five seasons ahead of us until then," he explained. "Of these five years, the first three will be used to build the team and the next two to consolidate and fine-tune so that we can achieve our goals. You cannot achieve this transformation in one season or a few months."
The team lags in manpower and tools, he admitted. "Where are we? The team is not yet where we want to be," he said.
For 2025, Binotto prioritises growth—adding 200 more staff and establishing a UK facility—over results. "We are in a different situation to the others," he noted. "We have to improve as a team. Our project has to be credible and attractive. This makes it all the easier for us to attract people and sponsors and motivate the existing team."
The 2025 car, however, must show signs of progress. "We cannot wait until 2026 to prove this," he said, "so for me, 2025 is an important season.
"We are hoping for a good start to the season, which will then allow us to focus on 2026 as early as possible. There might be more than one upgrade, but there will not be many."
Binotto also addressed past scepticism about just how committed Audi and its parent Volkswagen are about the new F1 project. "Audi is fully behind it and I don't think anyone doubts that anymore," he said.
"The fact that Qatar's sovereign wealth fund is involved in the project was an important message. It also sends the message internally that this is a long-term commitment from Audi."
While Audi will power only its works team in 2026, he sees value in following rival teams in trying to establish alliances. "That's a good point," he said. "There are a few teams that are not in any alliance. It would be good if those teams formed one." body check tags ::
