Inside Audi's secret F1 base as it prepares for 'difficult' debut

Our first stop on the maze of anonymous white corridors is the fuel lab - central to any success that Audi might achieve in the coming years. Key to the new regulations that will come into effect next year is the move from E10 fuel, like that sold on forecourts, to a carbon-neutral alternative, be that a biofuel or e-fuel.

This, says quality manager Klaus Spang, allows it to be tailored precisely to an engine's specific combustion process, potentially unlocking greater performance. But it also brings uncertainty in combustion behaviour. Endless flasks of different-coloured fuels litter the workbenches for investigation.

Used oil is key to identifying any issues, explains Spang, and samples are put under a flame burning as intensely as 10,000deg C to test for impurities. But Audi has yet to run a complete engine in a test, let alone a race, so it has little idea what to expect from its first season in F1.

Further muddying the waters are strict limits on how much testing teams can do: from 2026, they're limited to 700 hours testing engines and 400 hours testing electrical components. Testing the full drivetrain detracts from both.

Contributing to the unease at Neuburg is that Audi is only just beginning tests of its engine, having focused on its hybrid system so far. The clock is ticking very loudly indeed, as the team has little to no idea how that new turbocharged V6 will perform.

That uncertainty has informed Audi's approach to procurement: although each F1 driver will be allowed to use only three engines throughout the 2026 season, Audi expects to build somewhere between 50 and 100 in total. The best of the bunch will be reserved for the races, while the rest will be bound for further testing and development.

Each will be worked on by only two engineers, and as we pass the workshop there's a nervous energy in the air as exhaust systems, blocks and internals are carted around. Everyone seems to be trying their hardest, but to what end remains very unclear.

Deep in the facility lies what Foyer dubs mission control. There's an immediate shift in the atmosphere as we enter: where the industrial elements of the factory have bare plastered walls and brilliant white lighting, this zone is all painted black, with cinema-style spotlights. Seriousness descends.

To scale the narrow staircase and peep the massive projection of race data is how it must feel to walk into the Pentagon's nerve centre right as it moves up a peg on the Defcon ladder. There's an utter barrage of race data, television camera feeds and radio transcripts displayed, yet an air of orderliness remains in the room.

The existence of this room is itself a quirk of how Audi has entered F1. Sauber already has this infrastructure at its base in Hinwil, Switzerland, and the control room there will be operated in parallel with this one in Neuburg. That's 66 engineers split across two countries, working with another 58 trackside at every grand prix, bringing with them a dizzying number of layers of seniority, tasks and, of course, data.

Team principal Jonathan Wheatley "steers much of the process", says Foyer, but this seems to be a significant step up in scale compared with his previous tenure as sporting director of Milton Keynes-based Red Bull Racing.

Audi isn't ignorant of the challenge it has taken on. "Having set 2030 as our objective to fight for a championship, we are fully aware of how difficult it is," project director Mattia Binotto - a former Scuderia Ferrari principal - tells Autocar. "If we manage our expectations and ambitions, the pressure will be managed, but we need to get used to it. Pressure is a part of our world."

Yet Binotto is certain about the necessity of the difficult decisions made up to this point: "When the choices were made, I wasn't yet part of the project, but no doubt that it was a clear decision to become successful and a winning team in the future. Yes, it may add complexity, but it's a requirement.

"Having full control of the chassis and the power unit gives you a competitive advantage, a technical advantage, and because Audi is planning on not only participating but winning, it was a given. We accept the complexity because we have a clear ambition."

The overwhelming sentiment is that nobody really knows where Audi - or indeed any of the other 10 teams - will land in the pecking order next year, with such a drastic change in regulation. Binotto admits his team has no real clue, as "all the parameters we knew before are not true any more".

He continues: "What was important before in terms of performance may change today or tomorrow. For decades we have fine-tuned our tools around the regulations, so we know what's going to be fast and what's important to be fast, and I think that's the biggest change for the future.

"What will be more important is a question mark today: if you ask our tools today they may give you an answer, but I think the reality and the facts may be different when we start [racing)."

Wheatley also acknowledges the challenge but is notably more buoyant than his colleague about the state of the team today. "I was hugely encouraged by what I found, which was a much younger team than I expected with a more open mind than I expected," he says.

Indeed, he believes the Sauber team that he joined this year has "already started the journey towards becoming a competitive Formula 1 team rather than it being an achievement to get two cars to a race every Sunday" before it has even begun to wear Audi branding.

As evidence, he points to rookie Gabriel Bortoleto's shocking wreck in the sprint race before the recent Brazilian Grand Prix. "The team almost performed the incredible in Brazil in rebuilding - or building a brand-new car - for Gabriel in an incredibly short period of time," Wheatley says. "This team wouldn't have been able to do that a year ago, and that doesn't come from tools or investment, that comes from spirit, that comes from the team believing in itself."

What is clear is that Audi does indeed expect to win. "From the Auto Union Silver Arrows of the 1930s to touring car dominance, rallying and hybrid drivetrain dominance at the Le Mans 24 Hours, whenever Audi enters a racing series, success follows," says company CEO Gernot Döllner.

"Audi has never entered a racing series just to compete but to lead, to innovate and to win. That's exactly what we are striving for in Formula 1," he continues. "When I took over as CEO two years ago, we made the decision to sharpen our approach to Formula 1, because there are only two ways to do it. You do it right or you don't do it at all."