Audi’s first works-team campaign is beginning to turn a corner

Audi will enter the 2026 summer break eighth in the Constructors’ Championship with 12 points, a modest return but one that reflects growing momentum in the German manufacturer’s first Formula 1 season as a full works outfit.

The former Sauber squad opened the year with points in Australia before enduring a lengthy run without adding to its total. The team also faced a major off-track change when Team Principal Jonathan Wheatley departed. Upgrades introduced before the break, however, helped Audi return to the top 10 at Silverstone, Spa-Francorchamps and the Hungaroring.

Bortoleto carries the bulk of Audi’s points

Despite expectations that veteran driver Nico Hulkenberg would lead the team’s scoring after collecting 51 points in 2025, rookie team mate Gabriel Bortoleto has accounted for 10 of Audi’s 12 points.

Bortoleto scored in the season opener in Melbourne and then secured eighth place at both the British and Belgian Grands Prix. His Spa performance was especially encouraging: he reached Q3, managed tyre degradation effectively through the high-speed sections and finished in the points for a second consecutive race, in front of around 500 Audi F1 employees.

His best qualifying result so far is eighth on the grid in Belgium, while Audi has reached Q3 five times across the opening 11 rounds.

Close qualifying battle, clearer race advantage for Bortoleto

The internal qualifying contest remains finely balanced, with Hulkenberg leading Bortoleto 6-5. The race head-to-head is more decisive in Bortoleto’s favour: the 21-year-old has finished ahead of his team mate in seven of the 11 races.

Hulkenberg’s record has been affected by reliability and bad luck. He has suffered three retirements and a non-start in Australia, while Bortoleto has reached the finish at every race except China, where he did not start. The balance shifted at the Hungarian Grand Prix, where Hulkenberg beat Bortoleto in both qualifying and the race, finishing ninth—two places ahead of his team mate.

Hulkenberg’s gravel-triggered retirement defines Audi’s low point

Audi’s most bizarre setback came in Barcelona. While fighting for ninth place, Hulkenberg stopped suddenly after gravel thrown up by Liam Lawson’s Racing Bull struck the Audi’s kill switch and cut the car’s electrical systems. Although Hulkenberg returned to the pits, the mechanics could not restart the car.

Audi Racing Director Allan McNish called it “a very frustrating end to what had been a very good weekend for us as a team”, explaining that the impact activated an automatic safety function intended to shut the car down in an emergency.

Positive momentum heading into the second half

The three consecutive points-scoring weekends before the shutdown suggest that Audi’s development programme is beginning to deliver. Bortoleto’s back-to-back eighth-place finishes were followed by Hulkenberg’s ninth in Hungary, finally giving the team evidence that both sides of the garage can contribute to its total.

“I and the team knew it’s there – it was just a matter of time and putting it together. Finally, the piece fell into place,” Hulkenberg said after scoring in Budapest.

McNish also struck an optimistic tone, saying Audi would use the summer break to “recharge, keep building on our foundations and come back ready to continue our development in the second half of the year.”

With Audi developing its own power unit during one of Formula 1’s biggest regulatory changes, project leader Mattia Binotto has described 2026 and 2027 as foundational years. The early results remain limited, but the team’s veteran-rookie driver pairing and recent upgrades are providing a more positive platform for its longer-term ambition of fighting for a world championship by 2030.