Christian Horner’s Jonathan Wheatley Red Bull exit stance backed as huge Audi move sealed
Jonathan Wheatley has been with Red Bull since 2006.
Former racing driver Jan Lammers has backed Red Bull’s approach of looking to promote from within to replace future Audi F1 team principal Jonathan Wheatley in F1 2025.
Christian Horner confirmed in the announcement of Wheatley’s departure that the “strength and depth” within Red Bull means that the sporting director’s departure means it “provides an opportunity to elevate others within the team.”
Jonathan Wheatley leaving Red Bull to become Audi F1 boss
Wheatley will work with the team for the remainder of the season, completing 18 years as a Red Bull employee before undertaking a period of gardening leave, with Audi later confirming he will join their project no later than July 2025, where he will partner Mattia Binotto at the helm.
It will be his first stint as team principal of a Formula 1 team as well, and former F1 driver and Le Mans winner Lammers explained that looking to move teams is part and parcel of a career.
In replacing him, however, he added Red Bull’s “working culture” and “competent pool of people” should be able to perform well in his stead.
“At some point, and this is quite normal, people just want something different,” Lammers told RN365.
“Then you want a different challenge, a different field of work and different colleagues.
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“For that reason, you then just want to leave, not because there is anything wrong with where you work, so I think this will have been done in good consultation.
“Red Bull obviously has a competent pool of people. They have a lot to offer both in terms of drivers and team.
“Who wouldn’t want to work at a top team and with a four-time World Champion [Max Verstappen], assuming he will succeed this year anyway?
“Of course, we often talk about the young talents behind the wheel – like Andrea Kimi Antonelli, for example – but there are also many young talents in other areas who could replace Wheatley. I don’t think at Red Bull now everything has to fall over right away.
“If you’ve done very well, then of course you’ve just established a working culture. At some point it runs and it’s in a protocol.
“If all goes well, Red Bull can build on what Wheatley has put down for a while, and when you implement something, you also usually show another person how to do it even better.”
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