Allan Mcnish Named Audi Racing Director After Wheatley Exit
Allan McNish has been named Audi Formula 1 racing director after Jonathan Wheatley’s exit triggered a rejig inside the team. The move gives McNish a formal seat in the structure after several years of quiet involvement in the programme.
Under Audi F1 boss Mattia Binotto, he will have oversight of sporting matters, engineering coordination, driver management, race strategy and garage operations, as well as on-track media and partner activities. That places one senior figure across the work that has to line up every weekend.
McNish steps into Audi F1
McNish arrives with a profile built outside grand prix racing. He is a three-time Le Mans 24 Hours winner and a World Endurance champion, and he previously took charge of Audi’s works Formula E programme.
His new role formalises a presence that had been building for some time. McNish had already been quietly involved in Audi’s F1 programme for several years before the title change, so this is less a fresh arrival than a promotion into a visible operating job.
Binotto’s wider rebuild
The timing matches Audi’s shift into 2026 with its works F1 entry and first ever F1 engine. For a project still defining itself, the change puts McNish in the middle of the sporting and technical decisions that will shape how the team presents itself on track.
Audi’s past gives the move extra weight. Its Formula E package was extremely competitive and full of potential, but repeated reliability problems and an administrative error that cost a win at its debut event left the programme with unfinished business.
What Audi is asking McNish to do
The role is broad enough to touch almost every operational layer. Sporting matters, engineering coordination, driver management, race strategy, garage operations, plus on-track media and partner activities now sit under one umbrella, which should make the internal chain of command clearer for Nico Hulkenberg and the rest of the operation.
That clarity will matter most on weekends, where decisions have to move quickly and the programme cannot afford drift between departments. Audi has already shown potential through Hulkenberg’s podium at Silverstone in the past 12 months, but the team still needs the structure to turn isolated results into a consistent pattern.
McNish takes over at a point where Audi still has to prove the shape of its F1 project. The new racing director role gives Binotto a trusted senior operator and gives the team one clear hand on the wheel as the 2026 programme settles in.
