Red Bull have confirmed the departure of the team’s Sporting Director Jonathan Wheatley will leave the team to take a position as Team Principal at Audi’s planned team.
Wheatley, 57, will leave Red Bull after 18 years with the Milton Keynes-based team at the end of the 2024 season, before starting work with Audi after a period of gardening leave. The two teams have not publicly stated when Wheatley will start with Audi, with his future team saying he is to start there by July 2025.
The move is part of a reshuffle at the Audi project, which has seen former Ferrari team principal Mattia Binotto recently confirmed as the team’s new Chief Operating Officer and Technical Officer. Former higher-ups Andreas Siedl and Oliver Hoffmann were confirmed as leaving last week.Audi have said the structure of their Sauber operation will see Binotto run as an operational manager out of the team’s base in Switzerland and oversee technical development of the race cars, while Wheatley will work on managing the team at races and as a Team Principal representative.
Wheatley had joined Red Bull in 2006, leaving the Chief Mechanic role at Renault just after they had won the 2005 Drivers and Constructors championships.
The Briton joined Red Bull as a Team Manager, before gaining the title of Sporting Director in 2018.
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