Wheatley leaving Red Bull? These teams could offer him what he wants
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- Corwin Kunst
Jonathan Wheatley's future is unclear. Will the prized mechanic and team manager call it quits after this season, or will he accept a new contract offer from Red Bull Racing after all? The sporting director is weighing up his options and is said to be in talks with two other Formula One teams at the moment, according to The Times.
Last weekend, it became clear that Wheatley would have ambitions to become team boss, a goal that is not within reach at Red Bull as long as Christian Horner stays on. He is said to have inquired from other teams about that possibility and is now in talks with two teams, according to the aforementioned newspaper.
Which two teams are not specifically mentioned. Talks with Alpine and Sauber/Stake F1 Team seem the most obvious. At the seven other teams in Formula 1, no vacancy for the role of team boss is available.
Alpine
At the French team, Bruno Famin is still at the helm, but it was never the factory team's (and Famin himself) intention to remain team boss. Famin took over as interim when Otmar Szafnauer left midway through last season. The current number eight in the constructors' championship - the first point of the season was scored in Miami thanks to Esteban Ocon - is (again) reorganising its internal organisation.
The first evidence of this was the recruitment of David Sanchez, who will have overall responsibility for the performance, engineering and aerodynamics departments in a newly created role. Alpine has mountains of work to do to return to the (sub-)top of Formula 1 and Wheatley's experience could potentially come in handy.
Sauber/StakeF1 Team
At Sauber/Stake F1 Team, which will become an Audi factory team in 2026, little also remains as it was. Andreas Seidl is in charge of the project as CEO and recently attracted Nico Hulkenberg as a driver for the coming years. Valtteri Bottas has a new race engineer coming over from Ferrari and a cartload of new staff is currently being brought in.
In the process, the future of current team representative Alessandro Alunni Bravi is unclear. The 49-year-old Italian has been a member of the Sauber family for many years and held the role of 'Managing Director' at the Sauber Group before his appointment as team boss. He replaced Frederic Vasseur who left for Ferrari in early 2023. It does not seem obvious that Audi will continue with Bravi as team boss.
So, it is possible that Wheatley will follow in the footsteps of Max Verstappen's former chief mechanic. Lee Stevenson left Red Bull Racing for Stake F1 Team at the end of March.