FAQs on Formula 1: Verstappen and Red Bull, Newey and Aston Martin, Audi, Cadillac and sustainable fuels in Formula 1

The simple answer is that the top management of Aston Martin and Audi sensed that things were not going well at various stages and decided to act.

As far as Audi is concerned, it has been clear for some time that not enough investment was put into Sauber early enough for the team to be in good shape when Audi officially enters Formula One in 2026.

Andreas Seidl, the first CEO, has been worrying about this for a while, and there has been a bit of a power struggle between him and Oliver Hoffmann, the chairman of the boards of all Sauber companies, until 2023 and 2024.

It was expected that one of them would win. Ultimately, Audi decided to sack both, appointing Mattia Binotto and Jonathan Wheatley in a dual leadership role, Binotto as Chief Operating and Technical Officer and Wheatley as Team Principal.

Many in F1 were surprised by this – dual drives rarely work. Add to this the fact that there was another senior figure at Audi, CEO Adam Becker, and many felt that leading Audi seemed unwieldy.

So it was no great surprise when that structure was streamlined, with Becker removed, and Binotto appointed head of the Audi F1 project under Audi CEO Gernot Dollner.

It was meant to be so. Binotto was the general manager, and Wheatley ran the race team.

But when Wheatley decided he wanted to return to the UK, his conversations with Aston Martin leaked, and he and Audi agreed to part ways with immediate effect.

As for Aston Martin, Lawrence Stroll is an ambitious man, wants to succeed, and has invested a lot of money in it.

So it’s no surprise that when he feels things aren’t going well, he takes action.

All the changes he made made sense on one level or another. There is clearly an issue with the car’s design – having taken a huge leap forward in 2023 under new technical director Dan Fallows, the team has failed to develop the car effectively in the season. They started 2024 less competitive and fell back again.

At the same time, Stroll was recruiting Newey. Why wouldn’t he, given he was available after leaving Red Bull? With Newey on board, and the team faltering under Fallows, it is no surprise that Fallows is deemed surplus to requirements.

Same with driving. Mike Crack became the team’s manager but the team was not moving in a convincing direction. Then Stroll looked for change. Andy Coyle is highly regarded. Recruiting him made sense.

Stroll wasn’t expecting a clash between Coyle and Newey, but he got one, so another change was made.

Every change is understandable in isolation. But success in Formula One depends on stability, not disruption, and there has been little evidence of that at either team over the past two or three years.