Audi’s glaring F1 2026 weakness can’t be fixed anytime soon

Audi has admitted a fix for its biggest weakness during the 2026 Formula 1 season won’t be possible in the short-term.

Poor starts have been a theme of Audi’s 2026 campaign so far and the German outfit suffered another slow double getaway at the Japanese Grand Prix, with both Nico Hulkenberg and Gabriel Bortoleto losing ground off the line.

While Ferrari is enjoying the strongest starts in F1 this year, Audi has had some of the worst. 

“The start was not great, it’s something we know we need to work [on] as a team,” Bortoleto said in response to a question from Crash.net.

“Both Nico and me dropped a lot and after that there were a few issues we had throughout the race and I couldn’t do much out there.”

The Brazilian added: “The procedure is very similar to everyone. I think there is teams that have developed and worked the car in a different way to have better starts.

“It’s been terrible so far. We know it’s difficult for us and we need to improve on that.”

Unfortunately, there is no quick fix in sight, even with a five-week break from racing in April.

“We can improve a bit, but not in the short term to get to the Ferraris,” he added. “I think it's very difficult also with the Mercedes. I think we are still going to struggle a bit.”

Audi’s start weakness was also acknowledged by acting team principal Mattia Binotto.

“It [Japan] has been a poor start,” the former Ferrari chief told media including Crash.net, 

“And it's not the first time, so it's certainly not our strength. At the moment, the reason it has not been addressed so far is because it's not an obvious thing to be fixed.

“But on the other side, we know it's a top priority for us. Because, again, we had a good quali and not it’s worthwhile having starting good positions if we are losing all the positions at the start.”

Audi warns ‘miracles not possible’

As one of the new power unit manufacturers for this season, Audi knows it has work to do to improve its engine performance.

Additional Development and Upgrade Opportunities (ADUO) should help Audi, but it won’t be a quick solution.

“The lead times on engine development are very long,” Binotto explained. “We have assessed, I believe, that most of the gap we got to the top teams is from the power unit, which is not unexpected. We knew that would have been the biggest challenge.

“And we have got a plan to recover. But engine development, especially when it comes to some concepts, can take longer. It's not by chance that we have set 2030 as our objective [for challenging for the world championship]. Because we know that it will take long. And I think what we need now is to be patient as well.

“We are very ambitious and we would like to see things solved in a couple of races. But sometimes that's not the case.So I think we need to understand exactly where we are as a team, what are the plans. And as well, stick to the plans. Because miracles are not possible.

“We are not here to create miracles. It's not us. We cannot do that. But we are here to have proper plans to address and to improve in the future. And I think that's also possible.”