Audi will not compromise for the sake of short-term success.

      Audi has had a decent start to its debut season as a factory team in Formula 1, but the first three races have shown that the power unit of its own design has a serious drawback – a lack of power. Project leader Mattia Binotto stated that the team is already considering the possibility of creating an updated power unit design by 2027 or 2028, which will differ from the current one in several key parameters. Mattia Binotto: "The problem is much more complex – we are talking about a combination of parameters such as power, energy distribution, efficiency, and engine manageability. We still have a lot to do in the area of software calibration. When there are issues with manageability, it becomes harder to balance the car, so I constantly say that for us, it’s not just about a lack of power and efficient energy use. But these aspects hold the main reason for lagging behind the best teams, which we currently assess to be at least one second. We will likely have to rethink the engine design concept. This could happen in 2027 or even 2028. So we need to be patient. I know this, and the team knows this. But on the other hand, we can still try to meet the set tasks, and what we are doing today is not so bad. We have not encountered recurring problems. On one hand, this is encouraging because it means we are solving the issues we face. On the other hand, it shows how young our project is, as the reasons for the problems are our processes or our organization. The issues we face are sometimes related to design, sometimes to operations, sometimes to simple mistakes, human errors that can occur when you have such a young team. But these are all different minor problems that slow down the work on improving the car." At the same time, Mattia Binotto added that for Audi, the priority task remains the fight for the title in 2030, and the team will not abandon this goal for the sake of improving results in the short term. "It is important for us to balance short-term and long-term perspectives because the future remains a priority," Binotto continues. "Therefore, while working to ensure everything works correctly at the moment, we must not lose sight of long-term goals. Since we are working under budget constraints, our capabilities are also limited. Long-term goals are a priority. However, everything we can do within the framework of achieving short-term goals will be done. But it is more important to look to the future. This means that we need to allocate resources wisely and think big right now to achieve the desired results in the future, rather than throwing everything to the wind now. We cannot afford to miss the goal by 2030, so we need to continue climbing this mountain. It is clear that achieving success in 2026 is important for us and for our partners, but I will not compromise the future for the sake of short-term perspectives."