Allan McNish experienced a nightmare first weekend in his new role as a leader in Formula 1, as Audi’s reliability crisis worsened in Miami: he will have a lot of work ahead.
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The former triple winner of the 24 Hours of Le Mans now oversees track operations after the departure of Jonathan Wheatley, in collaboration with project leader Mattia Binotto, as part of the restructuring of Audi’s F1 program.
Nico Hulkenberg suffered a fluid leak accompanied by a fire outbreak before the sprint race, before retiring on Sunday due to overheating issues.
Meanwhile, Gabriel Bortoleto was disqualified from the sprint for an irregularity related to intake pressure, then his brakes caught fire in qualifying, during a weekend marked by numerous technical and operational problems.
Organization to be reviewed
McNish acknowledged that this event revealed the extent of the work to be done: “If he had started from a normal position on the grid, he would probably have scored points, he said about Bortoleto. The same goes for Nico in a clean race.”
The 56-year-old Scot believes, however, that the raw pace of the car is more encouraging than the results suggest: “The fact that we were able to remain competitive with a relatively modest package compared to others shows that the pure speed is there”, McNish explained.
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But he admitted that operational aspects and reliability remain far from the expected level: “Of course, we don’t want this kind of thing to happen. Everyone is still in a learning phase. It’s not surprising that we don’t get everything perfect right from the start.”
McNish also revealed having spent much of the weekend trying to understand the internal workings of the organization: “There was a lot to learn. I first had to understand how the different departments work and how they are interconnected. I now have a clearer vision.”
Too many reliability issues
Former F1 driver Timo Glock was much more direct: “Hulkenberg cannot be satisfied with this situation, but neither can Audi with their performance this weekend and so many technical problems,” he said to Sky Deutschland. Since the start of the year, there have already been three race starts where a car was missing due to technical issues. They need to sit down and do their homework. They can’t afford this.”
Hulkenberg himself tried to stay positive despite his lack of points so far in 2026: “Overall, it has been a character-building weekend for us. We had a lot of problems to manage, there is still a lot of work to do, but there are also some positive aspects. I think our pace is not that bad.”
“But we need to turn that into results, show it on track, see the checkered flag and bring the cars to the finish,” he concluded. We will keep working, keep our heads up and not get discouraged.”
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