Eddie Jordan's scathing assessment of Audi’s F1 project being “fundamentally wrong”

Legendary F1 team owner Eddie Jordan has criticised Audi’s project as “fundamentally wrong”, admitting he has a “question mark” over the German manufacturer.

Audi will take over Sauber from 2026, becoming a fully-fledged works F1 team.

They are preparing for their F1 entry, signing ex-Ferrari boss Mattia Binotto and Red Bull’s Jonathan Wheatley in the last week.

However, those signings are part of a major management reshuffle just 18 points before their first race.

Speaking on the Formula for Success podcast, Jordan explained why he has doubts over Audi.

“I have a question mark over Audi in the full stop,” he said. “You [David Coulthard, co-host] and I are particularly good friends with Allan McNish and we wish him well there, but that’s a big, big task he’s taken on, big, big operation. To build a car, to run it out of Switzerland, with manufacturing, it’s a big, big, big ask.

“When did you last see a Swiss or a German team win a world title? We saw what Toyota did. They came in, they tried to do it that way and then it didn’t work. And the amount of teams that has done, it’s cost fortunes. 

“And so it’s a big ask. And I have to say there is no better way to run a race car than through Britain and particularly in that area of Northampton, Oxfordshire and various other places. They’ve just got such a wealth of knowledge. They’ve just got such a mindset of being able to win or to achieving or getting the best.

“And the suppliers in the region understand the complexities and the timeframes that people are on there. Whereas, you know, you go out and you order a piece of machinery to be done in Switzerland. They will give you a timeline of maybe needing four days, four weeks, four months and there’s nothing you can do.”

Jordan feels that UK-based teams have a decisive advantage - and one Audi should have considered.

“Whereas if you’re in the UK, you would just sit on top of that supplier and say, ‘If you don’t do this, you just don’t get any more work. So you better drop everything and do it.’ And they work night and day to get it done,” he added.

“So that’s the philosophy that there is a racing culture, it’s in the DNA, and I think what Audi are doing is fundamentally wrong.”

Coulthard added: “I think that if you are really trying to be World Champions, a Grand Prix winner, then the UK has long established itself as being the backbone of where you would achieve that,” he said.

“Ferrari are the outliers of course, but that took a major European headcount to deliver that.

“But time will tell whether it [Audi] is successful or not.”