Fresh problem for Red Bull pointed out as Jonathan Wheatley departs

Red Bull’s dilemma for how to replace Jonathan Wheatley has been picked out.

Wheatley will exit his role as Red Bull’s sporting director at the end of this season to become Audi’s team principal.

Audi insist he will join by July 2025 at the latest after a period of gardening leave, while Red Bull have vowed to look internally for a replacement.

Ted Kravitz said on the Sky F1 podcast: “Who will they get to replace him is the other question? Being such a valuable guy in terms of the rules and keeping a razor sharp race team, how will they divide it up?

“I can think of quite a few guys within Red Bull who were mechanics but have risen through to senior roles. Wheatley used to be a chief mechanic at Benetton.

“I can imagine those guys moving up, they know the rules as well.

“Some people have speculated that Gianpiero Lambiase might go into that sporting director role.

“I don’t think he wants to leave the cut and thrust, and the fun, of racing every week.

“That is fun, until it’s not. It’s fun winning races and championships. I’m not sure if GP wants to leave that.

“Red Bull will promote from within. They might get two people. A chief mechanic who will run the race team pit stops, and they’ll find someone who knows the rules well for the sporting director role.”

Wheatley has previously described his sporting director role, where his knowledge of the F1 rules gives Red Bull an advantage during race weekends: “The way I do my job is insane in a lot of ways because I think through every single scenario that I think could happen and I look at the rules and I look at how the team might react and I try to come up with an idea.”

Media challenge awaits Jonathan Wheatley

Audi’s major investment, ahead of their full 2026 entry, includes Wheatley as team principal and Mattia Binotti as Chief Operating and Chief Technical Officer.

“Wheatley has got a lot to do, working with Binotto who he already knows,” Kravitz.

“His expertise is as the rules man. He knows the rule book better than anyone else in the world.

“He needs to learn everyone’s name, learn the language, understand how they work before identifying whether he needs to change it.

“Will he turn up to team principals’ meeting or will he leave it to Binotto?”

Kravitz added: “The rules guy, who has won Red Bull races and championships because of his innate knowledge of the rules and how they can be used, he is going.

“Did he always have ambitions to be a team principal? I suppose so. He’s ambitious, as most people in F1 are.

“Christian Horner isn’t going anywhere. Earlier in the year, Wheatley was supposed by the media as a potential Horner replacement if that was necessary, which now we know it isn’t.

“I don’t think Wheatley will have pushed his name to the media.

“Wheatley will have to face the media. I don’t think I’ve seen an in-depth interview with Wheatley. Red Bull have allowed us to talk to him, to talk about Red Bull being the best at pit stops.

“Wheatley will have to do his first big interviews with people.”