£470m team who targeted championships told they may never win a Formula 1 race

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Of the five teams on the F1 grid right now, only two have never won a Grand Prix. Newest entrants Haas are one, and Aston Martin are the other.

Haas have yet to score a podium since joining the grid back in 2016. They do have one pole position to their name, though, thanks to Kevin Magnussen at the 2022 Brazilian Grand Prix.

Aston Martin first competed in F1 in the late 1950s before returning to the grid in 2021 in place of Racing Point. With nine podiums, they beat Alpine (four) and Red Bull junior squad RB (five), but both of those teams have stood on the top step of the podium.

There will be some debate about whether Renault’s earlier victories should count towards Alpine’s record. But Esteban Ocon broke their duck following the 2021 rebrand when he won the Hungarian GP.

Meanwhile, RB have pulled off two sensational upsets, both on home soil at Monza. A young Sebastian Vettel won there in 2008, and Pierre Gasly followed suit in 2020.

Scott Mitchell-Malm says Audi may never get an F1 win

Like Alpine, Sauber only have one win to their name, and it came during their partnership with BMW as Robert Kubica took the chequered flag at the 2008 Canadian GP. But that tally will be reset in 2026 when they become the Audi works team.

Audi have acquired Sauber in a deal that values the operation at £470m (Motorsport Magazine). Predictably given their stature, they arrive in F1 with huge ambitions.

Internally, Audi are targeting championships by 2031. But The Race’s Scott Mitchell-Malm is far more sceptical about their prospects.

Forerunners Sauber are the only team on the grid who haven’t scored a point this year. Audi will build a ‘cannon of an engine’, according to ex-F1 driver Giedo van der Garde, but it could take time to develop a chassis to match.

As such, it’s not guaranteed that they even score points in their debut season. They may have to wait a couple of years before they’re in a position to snatch a podium, and it’s feasible that they never roll out a car good enough to win.

“First points should be in ’26 but I wouldn’t put anything past Sauber at the moment,” Mitchell-Malm said. “I think ’28 for the first podium at the earliest. And the first win? I’d be surprised if it comes in the first three seasons, and there’s a risk that it won’t come at all.”

‘Important people’ are backing F2 high-flyer to secure Audi seat

For Audi, the immediate priority should be completing the 2025 Sauber driver line-up. They’ve just reworked their hierarchy, with Mattia Binotto replacing Andreas Seidl and Oliver Hoffman as the head of the project and Jonathan Wheatley due to join from Red Bull as team principal.

Now that this structure is in place, they can focus on finding a teammate for Nico Hulkenberg. Valtteri Bottas could stay at Sauber, a scenario that looked very unlikely earlier in the year.

But the team are also actively considering bold external hires. Binotto is interested in Gabriel Bortoleto, the McLaren junior who’s currently second in the F2 standings.

‘Important people’ are backing Bortoleto for the seat. One of those is two-time world champion Fernando Alonso, who acts as his manager.

One driver who can be almost ruled out is Sebastian Vettel. There have been murmurs of a sensational comeback, but Binotto won’t be keen on Vettel after playing a role in his 2020 Ferrari exit.