Audi make major step forward as Wheatley hails 'considerable' progress in Bahrain

Taking over from Sauber in 2026, Audi had a decent Test 1 in Bahrain, racking up the fifth highest number of laps across the three days (353) as the seventh fastest team overall, with their quickest time 2.6 seconds behind Mercedes chart-topping 1:33.669.

For Wheatley, however, Audi's most important achievement so far in Bahrain has been their F1 operation finally "coming together," after COO and CTO Mattia Binotto claimed they had a "very. very long" list of problems to fix after the Barcelona shakedown.

In Barcelona, Audi brought out multiple red flags across five days of private testing due to reliability issues, with Gabriel Bortoleto stopping after just 27 laps on Day 1, and Nico Hulkenberg suffering problems on Day 3.

Speaking to media, including GPblog, Wheatley explained Audi still have some technical gremlins, but have made "considerable" progress since Barcelona.

Wheatley said: "I think those gremlins are still around but we're hitting them with hammers. I'm really hugely encouraged. I sound a bit like a broken record, but we were the first team to put this generation of car on the track. We developed our own powertrain. It's not just the PU, this is the gearbox as well.

"And I think the steps we've made since Barcelona have been considerable. You know, don't underestimate the job list, it's big. And I think the most encouraging thing is how collaborative working environment that's coming in the garage.

"We looked a bit clunky in terms of our operation in Barcelona to my eyes and it's coming together now."

And when asked whether Binotto's long list of issues has got any shorter, Wheatley was far from concerned.

"If it's anything like my job list, they just continually get bigger, you cross a load off of them but you add 10 more because your ambition is such that you start looking at even smaller margins, smaller gains.

Meanwhile, Wheatley also weighed in on the Mercedes engine 'loophole' saga that has all of the paddock talking, with Toto Wolff even admitting his fears that all four Mercedes-powered teams may miss the opening Grand Prix amid pressure from other teams to change F1 rules.