INTERVIEW: Allan McNish on Audi’s F1 championship ambitions and life on the pitwall

McNish has Audi running through his veins.

As a driver, he spent 11 years with the manufacturer, winning two of his three Le Mans 24 Hours titles and three American Le Mans Series Championships before finally landing the big one in 2013 with the World Endurance Championship, after which he retired from racing.

McNish's links with Audi, however, saw him become a director of its Group Motorsport division, before leading it to the Constructors’ Title in its debut season in Formula E in 2017-18 as Team Principal.

When Audi announced its entry into Formula 1 in 2022, McNish became a senior consultant, before being appointed Director of the Driver Development Programme in January 2026.

The sudden exit of Jonathan Wheatley as Team Principal in late March for "personal reasons" prompted a rethink of Audi F1's structure behind the scenes. Chief Operating and Technical Officer Mattia Binotto took on the additional responsibilities of Team Principal, and brought in McNish as racing director from the Miami Grand Prix.

Asked by this writer whether Audi's decision to throw him onto the pit wall came as a surprise in the end, he replied: "Yes and no is probably the answer to that. Yes, a bit of a surprise, but was it on my agenda? No, not really.”

"The fact that I'd been involved in the project from the beginning, and in quite a lot of different roles, seeing it from technical, marketing, commerce and management, it did allow me to jump into it with a pretty good understanding. Not necessarily a full understanding, but I knew more than just the ropes; I knew the people and the way that things were moving.

"This was the right opportunity at the right time, and there were two things to it. The first, as I said, I've been involved since the beginning, seeing it grow and knowing where it can go with the people at the helm.

"The second is having understood Audi for such a long period of time, when they commit, they commit. They're not half-pregnant; they're fully committed to the goals. That gave an element of confidence that we're on the right journey, and to be part of it is really good.

"And there's a third part, actually. Independent of whatever role I'm in, I love racing. I love the competition. I love the energy of it. Seeing people with a similar mentality is really cool. Being at the trackside, if you like, is where I feel whole."

McNish conceded that he did not jump at the chance immediately, in particular, as he had to consult with his wife, Kelly, before saying yes. That, though, was a very short conversation.

"I phoned Kelly and said, 'Look, this is something that's come up'," recalled McNish, who has enjoyed numerous visits to the Goodwood Festival of Speed over the years.

"She said, 'Right, okay, see you in six months!' I've been very fortunate that all through my career, in anything that I have ever decided was the thing I wanted to do or the right thing, she was 100 per cent behind it.

"There was never a question about anything, including retiring. I came home and told her I was stopping. It was, 'Is that the right thing for you?'. 'Yes'. Boom! Go!"

"I suppose we've got parallel careers in a way. Mine is obviously what you see. Hers is being there, supporting me, but also bringing up the family and making sure that side of it is what it is. Her career supports mine without question. There was never a question in my mind.

"It's a case of, 'I know the people, I like it, I understand what they're doing and where they're going'. I was part of it anyway. It's just now more about the front-facing part of it."

As a new team in F1, despite Audi taking over the longstanding Sauber operations in Hinwil, Switzerland (though notably building its own power unit out of Neuberg, Germany), McNish knew it was never going to be easy.

There was a natural feeling of being thrown in at the deep end when he first walked into the F1 paddock in Miami, but he was quickly able to shake that off and immerse himself in a new way of life.

"We knew at the beginning of the year, and it was quite obvious, that we had some technical issues," said McNish.

"When we turned up in Miami, it was quite clear there was a lot of work to do, which was already known. From my point of view, it was the width of it, because it was a team that was also bonding together; even though a lot of people were in place in '25, they were coming together with a different spotlight on them as well."

"From there, it was a case of managing a little bit the expectations, but also managing step by step, just getting into the nitty-gritty of it and trying to take one piece at a time and build it. When you see that sort of thing growing, then it builds its own momentum."

Although Gabriel Bortoleto scored points on Audi's debut by finishing ninth in the season-opening Australian Grand Prix, the team had to wait another eight races — at the British Grand Prix at Silverstone — for McNish to savour the high of a points-paying position for the first time with the team, when the young Brazilian placed eighth.

Bortoleto followed that up with eighth again in the following race in Belgium, and although he has not scored since, team-mate Nico Hulkenberg has picked up the baton by collecting points in five of the next eight races.

"Now we're through some of the trials and tribulations of being a new team at the beginning of the year, we're fighting in and around that fifth [team] place, I would say, and into the Q3 area," he said. "It's maybe better than we expected in some areas.

"The thing that I liked, after we missed getting a car into Q3 in Madrid, was the frustration. Even though it was only by thousandths of a second, the frustration and disappointment were there. That was good because that's the energy you need."

Audi is currently in a fight with Haas for seventh position in the Constructors' Championship. If it can overhaul its rival over the final few Grands Prix, it has to be seen as an achievement. As a benchmark, only once in the previous 12 seasons did the Hinwil operation finish in the top seven.

Audi's stated aim — and rightly so given its illustrious motorsport pedigree — is to fight for the Championship in 2030. McNish maintains that is "a realistic target", although he recognises there is "a lot of work to do before then".

"We know where the benchmark is, and we want to be up there with them," said McNish. "At the end of the day, you don't go in to finish second. If you go into any sport, you go in to be successful and try and win.

"Of course, you do that with the knowledge that you can't do that on day one. To do it consistently takes time to develop a team and technology, the whole structure to be able to do it.

"We're at, I would say, the bottom rung of the ladder at the moment, but we certainly can look up the ladder and see where the future could be."

Images courtesy of Getty Images.