Jonathan Wheatley - Photo: Audi Revolut F1 Team Content Hub

Audi boss details cause of RS26’s premature stop in Barcelona opening day

13:59, 27 Jan

byTobia Elia

Audi team principal Jonathan Wheatley offered his first assessment at the end of a bittersweet opening day for Gabriel Bortoleto in Barcelona.

“We identified it and decided to switch the car off on track”

- Jonathan Wheatley

The German outfit logged the fewest laps of the seven teams in action yesterday, with Bortoleto managing just 27 laps before a late-morning issue brought his RS26 to a halt.

“We had a technical issue with the car,” Wheatley confirmed in conversation with F1. “We identified it and decided to switch the car off on track. With plenty of testing scheduled this year, we wanted to fully understand the problem, so we’ve been analysing it carefully. Now we’re preparing the car and we’ll see what the weather conditions are like tomorrow to decide whether that will be the day we run.”

Despite the technical issue encountered, the former Red Bull sporting director reiterated that there is a strong sense of excitement within the team: “There’s a tremendous amount of excitement. It’s no longer just a project — it’s a real thing. We have a real car in the garage, a real power unit and a real gearbox.

“We’ve also welcomed some fantastic partners, not just Revolut but also Visit Qatar, which is an incredible sponsor. We’re extremely excited about what this season holds and really looking forward to the next few years.”

Which power unit logged the most mileage on day one in Barcelona testing

Seven teams took part in the opening day of running yesterday, with Mercedes, Red Bull, Racing Bulls, Haas, Cadillac and Alpine providing the first on-track action of the season, besides Audi.

Mercedes-powered cars topped the mileage charts, completing a total of 209 laps, while Ferrari also enjoyed a solid opening day through Haas and Cadillac, which together logged 198 laps.

Audi, however, ran into trouble early on. The German manufacturer was the only one to encounter issues on day one and consequently completed significantly fewer laps than the other six teams in action.

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