The Swiss-Italian, who worked his way up to become team principal at Ferrari across a 28-year career with the Scuderia, was speaking to L'Equipe on Audi's entrance into F1, taking over from the Sauber team this season.

Audi have enjoyed a solid start to 2026, with Gabriel Bortoleto finishing P10 at the opening race in Australia, and teammate Nico Hulkenberg just missing out on the points in China, all while racing for a team bringing in its own power unit for their debut F1 campaign.

Speaking to L'Equipe, Binotto reflected on the challenges of taking over from a modest F1 team in Sauber, with the goal of challenging for victories within five years.

He said: “Sauber was a small, historic team with perhaps a somewhat outdated infrastructure.

However, Binotto kept coming back to Ferrari as a reference point, but not necessarily a positive one.

But most notably of all, the Audi boss rejected the idea that they will be looking towards Ferrari for inspiration on how to build a successful F1 team, with a brutal concluding joke.

There is hope, however, that 2026 could finally be the year for Ferrari after a couple of thrilling performances from the Scuderia this season.

In China, Charles Leclerc and Lewis Hamilton had an epic battle for the final podium position across multiple laps, which led to the Monegasque driver defending the 2026 regulations against claims that this season's racing is too 'artificial.'

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