Audi to replace former team principal Jonathan Wheatley confirms Mattia Binotto

[p]The team announced last week that the ‌Briton had left the Swiss-based team for ‌personal reasons, with former Ferrari boss Binotto adding the ‌role of principal to his other duties.[/p][p]Wheatley has ‌been linked to Aston Martin, the team run by his former Red Bull teammate Adrian Newey and now ‌struggling with an uncompetitive Honda engine. ⁠He had joined ‌Sauber, now Audi, in April last year.[/p][p][b]"Looking at what ​his strengths were, the task he was performing - we need to fill the gap,"[/b] ​Binotto told the website at the Japanese Grand Prix. [b]"I can't simply add more and more responsibility and ⁠tasks for myself.[/b][/p][p]"My ​main focus is at the factory base where we need to transform the team, where we need to develop the car and the powertrain, so ‌I will need someone to support the team here at the race weekend.[/p][p][b]"We are considering it. We will organise ourselves and I am pretty sure that very soon we can announce it."[/b][/p][embed guid="bc94a953-a70e-4a80-85c7-f871fb157cc3" url="https://x.com/audi_f1stars/status/2037439512171733308" social-type="twitter" /][p]Binotto said Wheatley's departure, which came after media speculation about Aston Martin, had taken the team by surprise.[/p][p]He added that the Briton had said he ‌could not commit long term to the team ​for private reasons.[/p][p][b]"We decided as Audi, given ‌that he couldn't commit, to release him from duties. I don't think that as a team we have realised it yet. It was just (last week) and now we are here ⁠in Japan and we ⁠have a race ‌weekend ahead."[/b][/p]