From Aston Martin’s “two popes” to Red Bull’s Christian Horner v Helmut Marko tug-of-war, a power struggle has apparently now broken out within Audi between Oliver Hoffmann and Andreas Seidl.
Former McLaren team boss Seidl was appointed as chief executive officer of Sauber Motorsport at the beginning of last season before becoming the Audi F1 Team CEO in March this year.
Audi higher-ups in ‘a battle to get rid of each other’
His appointment to the Audi position came as the German carmaker officially confirmed they were taking over 100 percent of the Sauber Group ahead of the F1 team’s 2026 rebranding as Audi.
That day Seidl thanked Audi’s Chief Representative of Formula 1, Oliver Hoffmann, for his “trust and am looking forward to leading Audi into Formula 1 together with a highly motivated team as CEO of the Audi F1 Team.”
But four months later, trouble is said to be brewing.
According to AutoAction, Hoffman and Seidl are “at odds and, allegedly, in a battle to get rid of each other.”
Spurred on by the team’s failure to score points this season, that they’ve also seemingly failed in their bid to sign Carlos Sainz has created tension amongst the top management.
It’s led to a battle that could see Seidl ousted, that’s if Hoffmann has his way.
According to the publication: ‘Hoffmann is planning to sack Seidl and replace him with Aston Martin’s Mike Krack, who would become Audi F1’s Team Principal, with the German becoming Sauber Group CEO as well as Audi’s Chief Representative.’
But at the same time: ‘Seidl is putting pressure on the Board of Directors to sack Hoffman’ as he wants his powers as Chief Representative. It seems the only thing Hoffmann and Seidl agree on is Krack with Seidl also keen on appointing him as Team Principal.
Seidl could have Audi Chief Executive, Gernot Doellner, in his corner as he too reportedly wants Hoffmann out.
Audi’s 2026 preparations continue with new technical partnership
But as the rumoured in-fighting goes on in the background, Audi are continuing with their F1 preparations having recently appointed former Mercedes man Stefan Strähnz as F1 team’s new program director.
They also previously announced ex-Red Bull and McLaren man Stefano Sordo as well as Red Bull’s former chief mechanic Lee Stevenson.
On Monday, the team confirmed a new sponsor and technical development partnership that sees bp become the first official partner of the Audi factory team in F1.
bp will develop FIA-specified Advanced Sustainable fuel for Audi’s entry while Castrol will supply the lubricants for the German manufacturer’s first V6 F1 engine.
Leave a Reply