Eddie Jordan: Audi is making a fundamental mistake

In 2026, Audi will field its own Formula 1 team, which will be based on Sauber. Eddie Jordan, the former owner of the eponymous team, believes the German carmaker is making a fundamental mistake that is preventing it from succeeding.

In the Formula For Success podcast, Jordan calls the decision to leave the team’s base and race car production in Switzerland fundamentally wrong: “I have a big question for Audi. Alan McNish is a good friend and I wish him success, but he has taken on too big a task.

The decision to build the car in Switzerland, with German specialists and German production. What are they thinking? When was the last time a Swiss or German team won the title? We have all seen the example of Toyota. They went exactly the same way Audi is going now, and it didn’t work.

There is no better place to build a racing car than Britain, especially Northamptonshire and Oxfordshire. The people in these areas have a lot of racing experience and it is all about winning.

When you build a car in Switzerland, you order individual parts from local suppliers. They answer that the order will be completed in four days, four weeks or four months and that there is nothing you can do about it.

In Britain, there are a lot of suppliers, and if one of them can’t handle the order, you pass the order to another one. And they will work day and night to make it happen. This is the philosophy of the racing culture of that region. I think Audi is making a fundamental mistake.”