Frederic Vasseur has outlined some of the key components necessary for Audi to have a successful impact on Formula 1. Audi have already announced their plan to partner with Sauber, officially commencing in 2026, and confirmed their intention to acquire a stake in the Swiss motorsport team. Audi has also been on a massive recruitment drive for their power unit department , something Team Principal Fred Vasseur says will be key to their initial success on track. "You know that performance is coming from everywhere. It's never one single topic. It means that we know that we are far too small in terms of headcount," Vasseur told media, including RacingNews365.com . "Also, that we are something like 500 people today, when some other [F1] teams are perhaps 200 more. "For sure we have to do a step forward, but we have also three years to do it and it will be a challenge, but I think the challenge is very positive. "But on the other hand, I don't want to lose the path of the next two years, because the best way to prepare the future is also to perform and I want to keep the team motivated and focus on the ’23, ’24 and ’25."
Vasseur: 'Bit ambitious' to talk about drivers for 2026
Another key part to Audi's success will be the driver lineup they chose to represent them on track. Valtteri Bottas has already signified that he would like to stick around and Sauber has a pool of drivers it can chose from in its Driver Academy, notably Theo Pourchaire who had a run with the team during FP1 at the US Grand Prix. But Vasseur was coy when going into specifics of who Audi would like to get onboard for the project. He added: "It's a bit ambitious to speak about drivers for 2026, that we have the Academy, we are trying to develop young ones. "But it will be in the middle [of that period] because if you are speaking about young kids often in go-kart today, it will be more for 2030 or 2032. "For sure, we have Valtteri onboard, we have Zhou onboard, we have Théo in the pipeline. But we will have time to discuss about this and I'm not sure that you have so many drivers on the grid with contract after 2026."
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