From junior mechanic to Audi team boss: Jonathan Wheatley looks back on a 34-year motorsport career – why this path was unthinkable for him for a long time
Jonathan Wheatley, Formula 1 team boss at Audi, has revealed that he never planned to become a team boss after starting his motorsport career in the early 1990s as a junior mechanic at Benetton.
In an interview with Motorsport Week, the 58-year-old looks back on his career to date and how he worked his way up – starting as a junior mechanic at Benetton, later as chief mechanic at the same team and at Renault, and as team manager and sporting director at Red Bull.
When asked if he always wanted to be a team boss, the Briton says: “That would have been the least successful career in the world if I had planned it, because it took me 34 years to get here.”
Wheatley: One day, the call came
“No, back then the team principals were Ron Dennis, Flavio Briatore, Luca di Montezemolo. I mean, even thinking for a second that you could become team principal was completely out of reach,“ Wheatley explains modestly, ”because I basically enjoyed working in a team environment.“
”I never really saw myself taking the next step or the step after that. I just enjoyed every day in Formula 1. And as I said, I was very lucky that people recognized me as someone who could perhaps take the next step. And then sometimes in a career, you get that one important phone call.“ That call made him team principal at Sauber.
Wheatley emphasizes: ”I felt incredibly privileged because at no point in my career was I strongly career-driven. I just enjoyed working with the respective team, and opportunities were offered to me.“
Managing a special project with Audi
”Today, I’m sitting here as team principal of what will become the Audi Formula 1 project, and in my opinion, that’s one of the most exciting statements I can make in a single sentence,” says the Brit, proud of his role.
In 2026, Audi will compete with the same driver line-up as the Sauber team in the 2025 Formula 1 season, namely Nico Hülkenberg and Gabriel Bortoleto – but now under the new Audi branding as a works team. The new Audi R26 recently completed its first outing in Barcelona.
