New F1 team boss signs key motorsport advisor

Jonathan Wheatley has made a key signing following his recent appointment as the new team principal at Sauber.

After 19 years with Red Bull as team manager and then sporting director, Wheatley took on his new role with the Sauber Group at the start of April.

This year is a learning one for Wheatley ahead of the transition of a team, currently known as Stake, into a full-works outfit when Audi joins F1 for the first time next season.

To aid him on his journey, Wheatley has appointed renowned motorsport figure Simon Sproule as a senior advisor.

Sproule has worked in a variety of high-level communicative roles for more than 30 years with major manufacturers, including Ford, Jaguar Land Rover, Nissan, Tesla, Aston Martin Lagonda, and Fiat Chrysler.

Wheatley and Sproule know each other from the latter's role with Nissan when Infiniti, part of the Nissan group, was a title sponsor and technical partner of the team for several years over the past decade. 

Recently explaining his early vision for the team ahead of its Audi transformation, Wheatley said: "It’s a small team that’s in the transition phase to becoming a fully-fledged works Formula 1 team.

"There’s a myriad of projects that we need to get right. And one of those is meshing the people together. As a team, we need to get comfortable with being uncomfortable, because change is coming.

"We have to be at the forefront of that, and we need to have a clear road map as to where we’re headed – and I believe we’re on that road map at the moment."