Racing Director McNish takes stock at Audi: “It was a tricky time”

Fourteen races of the 2026 Formula 1 season have been completed, and with them the first 14 races for the Swiss Sauber team under its new German name, Audi, and with its own engine. With 17 points, Audi is eighth in the Constructors’ Championship. Gabriel Bortoleto is 14th in the Drivers’ Championship with 10 points, with Nico Hülkenberg just behind him in 15th place with 7 points. Audi is currently still fighting for a possible additional point, having lodged an appeal against the Monza result and hoping to secure another point should Yuki Tsunoda receive a penalty. The decision is still pending.

Moving away from the raw figures – how satisfied is Audi with the first few races? An interim assessment from race director Allan McNish following the Madrid race.

Qualifying came as a surprise

The Scot, who took on the role of race director in the spring, said: “To be honest, the performance in qualifying was definitely a surprise – the consistency there, when you look at it, from the best to the worst, the spread was very, very narrow, and that was a positive aspect.”

A difficult start to the season

Commenting on the situation in the World Championship standings, McNish said: “Our position in the championship and the points scored do not reflect our true potential, as we had reliability issues at the start.” In each of the first two Grands Prix, only one Audi lined up on the grid, and the problems at the start of the season were numerous. McNish: “We got the problems under control around the time of the Miami and Montreal races.” Nico Hülkenberg then retired from the Grand Prix in both Barcelona and Silverstone. Looking back, McNish said: “To be perfectly honest, that was a tricky time.”

This moment stood out

McNish, thoughtfully: “So have we exceeded expectations? Yes, probably in a way, but what actually pleased me most was seeing the slight disappointment and frustration among the engineering team and everyone else when we didn’t qualify for Q3 here in Madrid, because we really thought we might have been able to get a bit more out of it. To be honest, I don’t know if that would have been possible. I think the performance was actually quite good. But it’s precisely that little bit of frustration that’s probably one of the best things I’ve seen, because it shows that they have a different perspective to the one they perhaps had at the start of the season.”

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