Audi F1 Aston Martin looked very promising in the 2023 Formula One season with lots
of podiums and great results. Unfortunately for the Silverstone team, they slumped in the second half of
2023 and never looked fast again. That’s very bad news for them but
also for another giant in Motorsport. The German manufacturer Audi is
preparing for their entry into the pinnacle of motorsport in 2026 and they
are planning to be competitive immediately. That is a huge challenge and
one that many tried before them. I’m Wimbo, Here’s three seconds to leave a like. Aston Martin Underwhelming Aston Martin underwhelming. The current Aston Martin F1 team ticks all the
boxes needed for a successful Formula One team. When Lawrence Stroll invested in Aston
Martin taking a 16,7 % stake in the company, they rebranded the Racing Point team
he owned into Aston Martin F1 Team. So there are significant funds to run the team, especially since technology company
Cognizant became their title sponsor. Lawrence Stroll is a fashion
billionaire, so he knows his business! The team also had great drivers on the grid. Well, Sebastian Vettel is a four-time World
champion and he scored the team’s first podiums. Unfortunately, the second-place podium was taken away due to not having enough
fuel in the car in Hungar. The other driver was and still is Lance Stroll. He’s paired up with a two-time world champion now. Fernando Alonso scored loads
of podiums in the period when Aston Martin was competitive however,
lately he has not been in a good mood. I’ve read that the AMR24's issues largely flare up
in circuits with longer radius or faster corners, and that’s why there’s a lack of performance at
tracks like Barcelona and the Red Bull Ring. In 2021 they grew the workforce from 535 to 800 employees to make a team
that can fight for titles. Team Principal Otmar Szafnauer was replaced by Mike Krack who worked for BMW and
Porsche in motorsport for years. In 2021 the construction of their
new factory started where there was a place for every department
needed for a Formula One team. From design and manufacturing
to a brand-new wind tunnel. The facilities aren’t finished yet and they are
using the Mercedes wind tunnel in the meantime. Everything seems to be in place but
the results are pretty poor so far. The design team led by former
Red Bull engineer Dan Fallows is struggling to create a car that is
quick enough to fight the teams in front. They currently sit at p5 in the standings. Aston Martin is still hiring class people in the
F1 scene like Ferrari's Enrico Cardile as chief technical officer and Andy Cowell as group CEO,
Aston Martin is also hoping that it can improve in the short term before their new personnel start
to have an effect on the team going forward. The only big change that is still
coming is a new engine supplier. Honda has been very successful in the history of the sport but they keep coming
in and leaving all the time. They stopped the collaboration
with Red Bull who started their own powertrains department because of it. Honda then decided to come back
in 2026 for the new regulations and will supply Aston Martin with the new engines. So maybe they’ll be fighting ready in
2026 but seeing how they’ve fared the last 3 seasons a lot more needs
to happen before we have an Aston Martin constructors championship or
a driver from that team with a title. You can’t say they aren’t trying their best. Lawrence Stroll is throwing everything but the
kitchen sink at it but so far it isn’t working. And that doesn’t bode well for
an ambitious team like Audi. Audi's Ambitions Audi’s Ambitions. The manufacturer from Germany announced
in August 2022 that they will join F1 as a power unit supplier when the
new regulations are set to start. Instead of being an 11th team on the grid
they bought out another team to join F1. After years of running teams in different
forms, Sauber has sold the team to Audi. The small Sauber team had relatively
small facilities in Switzerland so big investments were made by Audi
to get the whole project on track. Another big facility was built in
Neuberg Germany and the two sites need to work closely together over that distance. Audi is jumping at the opportunity
to be in F1 since there has been a big boom in the sport with lots of
new fans interested in Formula One, and the budget cap makes it possible to outline
the cost needed to have the team running in 2026. Which was difficult in the years
before the budget cap when the big teams just spent whatever they wanted and
none of them made a penny through the sport. The cars will feature increased electrical power and 100% sustainable fuels
will be introduced in two years. Audi has a deal with BP Castrol and the different
types of sustainable fuel are being tested. Audi says the development of the
engine and the fuel is on track, but I didn’t expect them to say otherwise. The early processes were led by Seidl and Hoffman, but they were let go out of
their position not so long ago. I suppose the groundwork was
done, something Seidl did really well for McLaren too and now it’s time
for the next phase with fresh blood. So former Ferrari team boss and
a personal favourite of mine, Mattia Binotto was announced
as chief operating officer. His first hire is Red Bull legend
Jonathan Wheatley who will be teamboss. So Binotto running the technical department and Wheatley running the operational
side looks like a very good lineup. The Stake F1 team, which is what
the team is called at the moment, struggled with pitstops all season long and
that’s a speciality of Jonathan Wheatley. The first driver they have signed is
the German veteran Nico Hulkenberg. The second seat is still to be decided on. It’s very well possible that Valterii Bottas will keep his seat for another season,
before getting a proper driver in. Just kidding. Bottas is great! I like him. Zhou and his yen friends might stick
around if Alpine doesn’t pick him up. I might be forgetting a few details about
Audi joining Formula One, but all in all, this looks pretty decent and
they have set the bar very high. And this is where the problems start. Bad News Bad News So now we’re getting to the point of this video. Throughout the history of
the pinnacle of motorsport, there have been new manufacturers and
teams who joined with great promise. The last team who were taken over
to start another team was Alpine and it’s safe to say they aren’t shaking up
the grid with their great performances. Ocon did score a win in a bizarre race in 2021
with a lot of assistance from Fernando Alonso. Before that, there was Honda who returned to F1 after a break in 2015 when they
supplied engines to McLaren. This also failed, but eventually, they
found success with Red Bull 5 years later. Before that happened there was a new team called Mercedes who started their own team
after taking over Brawn in 2010. It took them 41 races to score their first win. What I’m trying to show here is that it
takes more than showing up with a car, staff and facilities to have
great achievements in this sport. Aston Martin, as I described
at the start of the video, has everything in place to win
prizes, but so far have failed. They are ticking all the boxes
and there is more to come, but as it stands I don’t know who to
put my money on for the 2026 season. We know the grid will be shaken up again with
these new regulations but it’s safe to say some teams are already better equipped to handle new
regs, especially when it comes down to engines. The easiest bet would be on
Mercedes, or one of their customers, as Mercedes knocked it out of the park
in 2014 with the hybrid V6 engines. Although I don’t think they
have a headstart this time. lol Ferrari has built loads of engines
in-house too so they know the score. They haven’t won anything in ages either,
but there are other reasons for that. The engines were the least of their problems. Red Bull just started a new department to build their engines in-house in the
Red Bull Power trains department. That’s not a guarantee for success either. And then there’s Audi who is brand new at the game and Honda who is building
engines for Aston Martin in 2026. What I’ve seen over the years is that many fantastic teams on the grid take
their position in F1 very seriously. They score podiums sometimes,
and they win occasionally, but to really excel like Mercedes
and Red Bull have done since 2010, a team needs exceptional people and a vision
beyond just ticking the boxes and 5-year plans. Unless Adrian Newey is indeed joining
Aston Martin and they finally get rid of Lance Stroll, I don’t see
Aston Martin winning titles. And the same goes even more
for a new team like Audi. They are brand new and shouldn’t
set the expectations too high. All that does is set yourself up
for huge backlash and criticism. I know they were successful in other
motorsports and they are a huge serious brand, but looking at the history of Formula
One, a team joining and dominating just doesn’t happen.
Prove me wrong! Subscribe! Take care now! Doei Doei!