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AudiAudi have set their targets on becoming “the most successful team in Formula 1 history” as they launched their assault on the highest level of the sport.
Audi is entering F1 for the first time in its history this season, having taken over the Swiss-based Sauber team.
Team principal Jonathan Wheatley described the launch of the new team at a lavish event in Berlin as a “historic moment”.
Wheatley said: “We’re not here to mess around, it’s an ambitious project. We’re humble. We know where we’re starting from and we know where we want to go.
“We want to make Audi the most successful F1 team in history. There are milestones on that journey and we are starting it today.”
Audi chief executive officer Gernot Dollner added: “Whenever we join a racing series, we join to win and to innovate and to bring motorsport forward. The ambition is to compete at the highest level and to compete for championships by 2030.”
Mattia Binotto, the head of the Audi F1 project, said: “There is an awareness we are just at the beginning of our journey. We are conscious there are a lot of challenges ahead of us but we are ready for it.”
Although Audi ran its new car at the Circuit de Barcelona-Catalunya last week, the car unveiled at the event was a show car not representative of the actual Audi design.
Audi will join the rest of the teams at the first pre-season test, which is to be held in private at the Circuit de Barcelona-Catalunya next week.
Audi unveiled a slogan for their new project: “To start something, stop at nothing.”
Binotto said this described “our approach to the journey – we aware there may be bumpy periods and failures, but to never stop, to have the passion to grow, it is the mindset to never stop pushing forward.”
He added: “We spent a long time discussing what our targets should be for 2026, whether it be championship positions or points. It is to become competitive. We need to stay humble. There is much to learn. It is more about the attitude, being here learning. And becoming competitive means average is not an option anymore.”
Wheatley added: “It is about a commitment, if we are going to start something, we are going to finish it. We are serious, and we are going to do whatever is necessary to make this a success.”
Racing Bulls gave their 2026 car a brief shakedown at a private test at a wet Imola on Tuesday.
Their rookie British driver Arvid Lindblad spun at the Villeneuve chicane and the car had to be recovered on a truck. His team-mate Liam Lawson also briefly drove the car at a test that was limited to 15km by F1 rules.
