Mattia Binotto, after his dismissal as Ferrari's theme manager in Formula 1, has been given a similar position at Audi, which he has otherwise strongly criticized.
Kevin Magnussen's current teammate, Nico Hulkenberg, will switch to Sauber after this season. Here, Mattia Binotto, who was fired by Ferrari in 2022, will be team manager.
Sauber, which will become Audi in 2026, confirms this in a press release.
– Our goal is to bring F1 speed to the entire Formula 1 project through clear management structures, expanded areas of responsibility and shorter and more efficient paths to decisions, says Gernot Döllner, managing director at Audi, according to a press release .
Already a year ago, Mattia Binotto must have visited Audi to draft the Formula 1 plans. After the visit, however, the Italian was not impressed with the set-up the Germans had in mind.
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However, the car brand has since denied the story. Mattia Binotto's arrival at Audi also means that Andreas Seidl, who otherwise left McLaren in favor of Sauber in 2022, will retire.
So does Oliver Hoffman, former chairman of the board at Sauber and technical director at Audi in particular.
Gernot Döllner will instead fill Hoffmann's role as board member of Sauber Motorsport AG ahead of the team's transformation into a factory team in 2026.
It has not yet been announced who Nico Hulkenberg will share the Sauber garage with for the coming years. Both the Finn Valtteri Bottas and his Chinese colleague Guanyu Zhou are out of contract this year.
Dane Kevin Magnussen will not have his contract with Haas extended after this season. It is expected that the Americans will instead sign a contract with another fired Formula 1 driver. Read more about it here .
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