Audi boss says 2026 F1 entry is like ‘climbing Everest’ amid torrid season
Sauber, which will officially become Audi in 2026, are the only team yet to score a point this year
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Audi F1 CEO Mattia Binotto admits that the team’s entrance into Formula One in 2026 will be like “climbing Everest” after a torrid 2024 campaign.
Sauber, which will officially become Audi in 2026, are the only team yet to score a point this season with Valtteri Bottas and Zhou Guanyu in their cars.
The pair only have six races left to try and seal the second seat at the team next year, with Haas’ Nico Hulkenberg already confirmed as a Sauber driver for 2025.
Audi are set to enter in 2026 and ex-Ferrari team principal Binotto acknowledged the scale of the task ahead of him.
"It’s not only climbing a big mountain, it’s climbing Everest. It will take several years," Binotto told BBC Sport.
"Our objective is by the end of the decade to be able to fight for the championships.
"When you are here and you start looking into the details, the more you look, the more you realise where you are and what are the main differences to what I knew from before from Ferrari.
"Certainly the gap and the differences are many and the gap is big.
"It’s big because of dimensions, because of number of people, because of mindset, because of tools, facilities. Whatever you look around, it is really comparing a small team to a top team."
Bottas is rumoured to be the favourite to take the second Sauber seat next year, though F2 championship leader Gabriel Bortoleto and Williams’ Franco Colapinto are also said to be in the running.
F1 returns this weekend with the United States Grand Prix in Austin (18-20 October).
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