Jonathan Wheatley to depart Red Bull after 18 years for Audi F1 team boss role

Red Bull has confirmed Jonathan Wheatley is to depart the team in order to take up the team principal role at Audi.

Red Bull has confirmed Jonathan Wheatley is to leave Milton Keynes in order to join the Audi team in the role of team principal.

Jonathan Wheatley leaves Red Bull for Audi

With Red Bull having renewed the contracts of most of its leading engineers in recent months, including technical director Pierre Waché, chief engineer Paul Monaghan, and aero head Enrico Balbo, a conspicuous absentee from the list had been sporting director Jonathan Wheatley.

The reason behind this has now become clear, with Red Bull confirming that Wheatley is to depart from Milton Keynes to take up a new role as the team boss of the Audi F1 squad.

In a statement from Red Bull, the squad paid tribute to the contributions made by Wheatley, who has been with the team for almost two decades.

“Today, Oracle Red Bull Racing announces the departure of Sporting Director Jonathan Wheatley, as he heads to a new challenge, taking up the role of Team Principal with the Audi F1 Project”, said the statement.

Wheatley will remain in his role until the end of 2024, with the aim being to secure both titles – Wheatley will then go on gardening leave in 2025 before taking up his post with the Audi squad.

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“It has been a long and successful relationship with Jonathan, over 18 years,” said team principal and CEO, Christian Horner.

“His contribution to six World Constructors’ Titles and seven World Drivers’ Championships, first as Team Manager and, latterly, Sporting Director will forever be a marker in our team history.

“Everyone at Oracle Red Bull Racing and Red Bull Technology wish him all the best in his new role and would like to place our thanks to Jonathan. Red Bull Racing has tremendous strength and depth and this provides an opportunity to elevate others within the Team. We will announce a new Team structure in the coming weeks.”

The 57-year-old began working in F1 in the early 1990s, initially with Benetton as a junior mechanic at Enstone. Rising to become chief mechanic in 2001, he was part of the winning Renault team that claimed titles in 2005 and 2006, before he left for Red Bull in 2006.

Wheatley joining Audi brings to an end more speculation following the departure of Andreas Seidl and Oliver Hoffmann from the Audi project.

With Mattia Binotto joining the project, a team boss had not been confirmed for the burgeoning F1 effort, but Wheatley’s name had been linked for some time as speculation swirled he was seeking a role with greater responsibility – his name was also linked as a possible replacement for Christian Horner at Red Bull, if Horner had been removed from his post earlier this year.

With current VCARB team boss Laurent Mekies taking over his role after being Ferrari’s sporting director up until last year, Wheatley’s appointment sees him added to a growing list of new and inexperienced team bosses – Ayao Komatsu replaced Guenther Steiner at the start of this season, while Alpine has replaced Bruno Famin with Oli Oakes for the remainder of the 2024 season.

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