Allan McNish reveals why Mattia Binotto’s Audi call was a ‘no-brainer’

Audi’s Allan McNish says it was a “no-brainer” for him to take on his new role, following a phone call from Mattia Binotto to slot in as a team leader.

McNish has taken on a senior leadership role with Audi following the departure of former team principal Jonathan Wheatley, but isn’t a direct replacement as he’s taken on the position of racing director.

Allan McNish explains decision to accept new Audi F1 role

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Ahead of the Japanese Grand Prix, Audi confirmed the departure of former team principal Jonathan Wheatley, just a year on from the Englishman joining the former Sauber squad to oversee the transition as Audi took over ownership of the Swiss outfit.

Personal matters played a large role in Wheatley’s decision to seek a way out of Audi, and it’s understood that Aston Martin is Wheatley’s likely destination upon his return to living in the UK.

As reported by PlanetF1.com at the time, Aston Martin team principal Adrian Newey is said to have identified Wheatley as his preferred successor, as Newey, who is a shareholder and managing technical partner, looks to revert to these roles.

Having recently vacated his position as team principal at Audi, where he had formed a two-pronged leadership role with Audi’s head of F1 project Mattia Binotto, Wheatley is understood to have not yet signed a deal with Aston Martin as negotiations continue.

With Binotto assuming overall charge of Audi, taking on the role of team principal alongside his CEO position, he explained in Japan that there would be no direct replacement for Wheatley but, in his quest to find a suitable deputy and delegate, would explore ideas. It’s believed that tensions between Binotto and Wheatley also played a part in the latter’s decision-making.

In the break between Japan and Miami, it was confirmed that long-time Audi stalwart Allan McNish would step into the role of racing director, taking on accountability for trackside operations and reporting to Binotto, effectively plugging a gap that had been created by Wheatley’s departure.

A former F1 driver with Toyota, McNish’s illustrious sports car career with Audi saw him win the Le Mans 24 Hours twice, including in his final year before retirement in 2013, the season in which he and his teammates also won the World Endurance Championship.

In the intervening years, in which he’s remained working with Audi Sport, he also served as the team principal for Audi’s Formula E efforts, and had previously taken on the challenge of leading Audi’s driver development programme even before accepting his new role.

Coming off the back of the first race in his new role, in which Nico Hulkenberg retired with a technical issue, and Gabriel Bortoleto finished 12th, McNish sat with the media, including PlanetF1.com, to reflect on what had been a whirlwind few weeks, joking that he was almost more nervous about the media session than he had been about the race weekend.

The Scot is warm and personable, saying hello to those present as he addresses questions about the operational events of the weekend and explaining some of the reliability issues that had struck, before turning to the topic of his own appointment.

“When I retired from racing in 2013, I was asked the same question!” he said, when asked by PlanetF1.com whether accepting his new role had been a “no-brainer”.

“I said I would never be involved in team management or anything else, because you’d have to deal with drivers like me! And I knew how difficult I was!

“The reality is, things change, life changes. So the rule of that is never say never.

“No, from that perspective, I’ve known this project from day one. I’ve been involved in it from literally the beginning, in many different roles.

“On that side, it was quite obvious for me, being in Melbourne and seeing the car race for the first time, it was definitely a special moment.

“It was a no-brainer from my personal perspective when I got the telephone call, and then went to have the discussion that yes, 100 per cent.

“Because again, I’ve lived it from day one. Why wouldn’t I?”

Asked by PlanetF1.com who had made the call, McNish pointed across the Audi hospitality unit to clarify that it had, indeed, been Binotto making the decision to approach him for the role, and explained how he will work alongside the former Ferrari team boss.

“Mattia is the team principal. He’s the CEO,” he said.

“I’m the racing director. So, effectively, he covers off the power unit and also everything in Hinwil, as you would sort of expect, because of his experience coming from the power unit and also understanding the team principal role, and I focus on everything we do here in terms of race operations.

“At the same time, as well, I still cover the Driver Development Program, which we just started at the beginning of the year.

“In terms of that, at this moment in time, he’s there as support – fantastic support – as opposed to necessarily being directly involved in the role that I do.

“This was definitely a learning race for me. There’s no question about it, understanding exactly how the different parts, whether it be Inaki [Rueda] in sporting, Rithvik [Reddy] in strategy, or Alex [Chan] in race engineering, you know, how they all fit together.”

At this point, McNish didn’t realise that Bortoleto had wandered over and was sitting close behind to listen in over his shoulder.

“Now I’ve got a bit of a clearer view, and then we can sit and try and progress forward,” McNish concluded, before clearly sensing the Brazilian driver’s presence. Checking to confirm, McNish pretended not to notice and turned back to the journalists to joke, “And also Gabriel Bortoleko, he is without doubt the best Brazilian driver in our team!” to the laughter of all present.

With McNish learning fast in his new role, the team itself is also having to learn quickly, particularly in terms of how to integrate between the chassis side of the team based out of Hinwil in Switzerland, with the Audi power unit department in Neuberg in Germany.

Asked about the potential gains to be made there, McNish said he hasn’t seen any reason that the current arrangement can’t work well, particularly with experience and refinement that will come naturally.

“It’s only going to get better, isn’t it?” he said.

“At the end of the day, it’s literally kind of started at the beginning of this year, beginning of ’26, so we’re four months in in real terms.

“In that respect, it will only get better. I think the structure of it’s pretty set up and pretty stable in that respect.

“Clearly, we’ve got some areas that we’re working on at the moment, but I wouldn’t say that the communication side is an issue. I don’t think that.

“There will be benefits as we go forward and work more closely together, and naturally, that will get better, but I don’t think it’s fundamentally that there’s anything that we need to change there.”

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