Audi F1 Team

2026 is Audi's first season as a works entrant, and the team sits eighth on 23 points. Nico Hulkenberg has 13, six of them from the Singapore weekend, and Gabriel Bortoleto 10. Audi bought into the Sauber operation progressively from 2022 and took full ownership for the new regulations, which for the first time required manufacturers to build a power unit with near-equal electrical and combustion output — the reason the marque judged this the moment to enter.

Peter Sauber's team entered Formula One in 1993 after a successful sportscar programme, and spent most of its history as an independent in the midfield, operating from a factory at Hinwil in Switzerland that was better equipped than its results suggested.

BMW took control for 2006. The high point came at Montreal in 2008, when Robert Kubica won the Canadian Grand Prix and BMW Sauber briefly led the constructors' championship. BMW withdrew at the end of 2009 and Peter Sauber bought the team back.

The identity changed repeatedly in the years that followed — Sauber, then Alfa Romeo from 2019, then Stake and Kick Sauber — while Audi's takeover proceeded in stages. The 2026 entry is the first time a German manufacturer other than Mercedes has run a full works team since BMW left.