Audi admits it won’t have the best F1 engine...

The subsequent 12 months might be pivotal for the Sauber crew, with the outfit bracing itself for the arrival of Method 1’s sweeping new laws and getting ready to develop into Audi’s manufacturing facility crew. Audi will develop the engine, which F1 lead Mattia Binotto warns received’t be “the perfect” on the grid.

For 2026, Method 1 will roll out new laws to make its vehicles extra nimble to enliven races. New engine guidelines will improve using electrical vitality in a grand prix to assist the collection develop into extra sustainable.

Alongside the brand new engine guidelines, F1 may even welcome new engine producers, with Audi and Ford – by way of a partnership with Pink Bull – set to hitch from 2026 and Cadillac following from 2029.  

“Making energy items – I do know this properly as a result of I used to be an engine engineer – is far more complicated and complex than one may think watching races as a spectator,” stated Binotto, who’s the pinnacle of Audi’s F1 undertaking, in an unique interview with Motorsport.com.

Binotto beforehand labored at Ferrari because it navigated the collection’ final main engine shakeup, which got here in 2014 with the introduction of the current-generation V6 hybrid energy items.

“Now, nonetheless, we’re coming into one thing extraordinarily superior that has by no means been performed. Due to this fact, we are going to discover a larger stage of issue, although the start line is all the time an engine. We must change the tradition of the engine and it’ll not be straightforward.” 

The brand new guidelines require a 50-50 cut up in energy produced by the interior combustion unit and {the electrical} elements. The complicated MGU-H, which harvests thermal vitality from the combustion engine, is being eliminated, and the motors will all be required to run on 100% sustainable fuels.  

These sweeping adjustments are offering a problem for engine producers, and Binotto admits that Audi isn’t any completely different.  

“We’re targeted on ourselves,” he stated. “We all know that 2026 is not going to be the 12 months wherein we’ll be on the prime. We can’t have the perfect energy unit, however the path that has been taken is the fitting one, I am assured.” 

The upcoming rule change might additionally open up new avenues of competitors, as groups could have a say on what fuels they use of their new engines. Choices together with e-fuels and biofuels can be found, which Binotto provides implies that “gasoline will develop into a differentiating issue” for groups in 2026.  

Curiously, Audi might have a leg up on this regard as its father or mother firm, the Volkswagen Group, has a historical past with e-fuels. By means of its Porsche model, the corporate is investing closely in sustainable petrol alternate options and has backed a manufacturing website in Chile.  

This undertaking, which kicked off in 2023, might assist Audi’s efficiency subsequent season, however Binotto admits that he’s heard “rumours” that one crew might as soon as once more capitalise on the sweeping energy unit adjustments: Mercedes. The German outfit is reportedly already a step above the remaining, and Binotto warns that the transfer to new motors might as soon as once more kickstart a interval of dominance for one crew.  

“In 2014 when a extra vital hybrid was launched on the facility unit, it was an engine championship originally,” he says. “As a result of Mercedes had made the distinction. It is a state of affairs that would occur once more and people who should get better will attempt to take action.” 

After all, this doesn’t imply the season is shaping as much as be a Mercedes clear sweep as soon as once more. And we received’t really know the way the brand new energy items stack up till lights exit on the first race of the 2026 season. 

One factor’s for positive, nonetheless. 2026 will mark a turning level within the historical past of the Sauber crew, which final received an F1 race in 2008 when it competed underneath one other German model: BMW.