Doubts about entry eliminated
Audi will probably take over the entire Formula 1 racing team
March 6, 2024, 8:23 p.m
Not backing down: Audi is pushing into Formula 1 and completing the next stage on the way to taking over the Swiss Sauber team. The German automobile manufacturer is thus refuting rumors that it is reconsidering entry into the premier class of motorsport.
The German car manufacturer Audi has completed the next transaction stage on the way to taking over the Swiss Sauber team. This is what research by “Motorsport-Total.com” revealed before the race weekend in Saudi Arabia. According to a report in the “Bild” newspaper, it is a “complete” takeover. There had recently been rumors that the brand might reconsider entering Formula 1.
Audi plans to enter Formula 1 as a factory in 2026. By then, Sauber will already be a shareholder, but the team will not be officially renamed until the 2026 season. The first tranche of the transaction was completed at the beginning of 2023. At that time, Audi took over 25 percent from the previous team owner Finn Rausing.
Rausing is a Swedish businessman who joined Hinwil in 2016 as part of the Sauber takeover by the investment group Longbow Finance. He is one of the heirs to the Tetra Pak empire and is estimated by the financial magazine Forbes to have a fortune equivalent to 8.4 billion euros.
This Wednesday, team boss Andreas Seidl is said to have appeared in front of the assembled team in Jeddah and confirmed to the employees that Audi’s entry has now reached the final stage in terms of taking over shares.
Completely taken over cleanly?
Audi has never officially commented on the transaction plan. Unofficially there was always talk of a 75 percent majority in the final expansion stage. The “Bild” newspaper reports that Audi has “completely” taken over Sauber. This would presumably mean a 100 percent majority and the departure of Rausing.
When Audi announced Sauber as a “strategic partner for entry into Formula 1” in October 2022, the schedule was communicated as follows: “In 2023, the expansion of the Neuburg location in terms of personnel, buildings and technical infrastructure should be completed as far as possible. First test drives with the power unit developed for the 2026 regulations in a Formula 1 test car are planned for 2025.”
Recently there have been repeated uncertainties surrounding the Audi program in Formula 1. There are still voices in the Wolfsburg parent group Volkswagen’s environment that persistently claim that Audi CEO Gernot Döllner would, under the right conditions, be prepared to cancel Formula 1 entry and sell the shares to the highest bidder.
But the fact that the transaction has now been completed suggests that Audi is not backing down and is sticking to the decisions already made by the company’s committees. Especially since there has recently been a personnel reshuffle, which does not indicate that Audi is planning to end the Formula 1 program.
Hoffmann as the new strong F1 man
As of February 23, 2024, Julius Seebach’s departure from the Board of Directors of Sauber Motorsport AG was recorded in the Swiss commercial register. Seebach has been reporting directly to the Board of Directors for Technical Development at Audi since May 2023 and is responsible for strategy and innovation management.
At the same time, Oliver Hoffmann was announced as a new member of the Sauber board of directors. Hoffmann has been Audi’s board member for technical development since March 2021 and it was he who announced Audi’s entry into Formula 1 alongside the then Audi CEO Markus Duesmann in August 2022 on the sidelines of the Belgian Grand Prix.
In February there were media reports that Hoffmann would lose his seat on the Audi board. Audi only extended his contract by five years in 2023. Rumored annual salary: around two and a half million euros. Now he is supposed to take care of the Formula 1 team, de facto as Andreas Seidl’s superior.