(Motorsport-Total.com) – The “puppy protection” for Audi is apparently over. After the brand with the four rings made many positive headlines at the beginning of the 2026 Formula 1 season, the mood seems to be slowly turning. Expert Ralf Schumacher also expressed criticism after the recent appearance in Miami.
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In the podcast Backstage Pit Lane by Sky, he says about Audi that “what they are doing at the moment is not good.” The background is, among other things, that the racing team only brought one car into the classification in both the sprint and the race at the Miami weekend.
In the sprint on Saturday, Nico Hülkenberg could not start at all due to a defect, while teammate Gabriel Bortoleto was later disqualified. On Sunday, Hülkenberg also only managed seven laps before retiring.
The only result was delivered by Bortoleto, who finished twelfth in the race with one lap down, after he had encountered another problem in qualifying. “That has nothing to do with ‘Vorsprung durch Technik’ at all,” Schumacher grumbles.
Expert Timo Glock also criticized during the Sky broadcast at the Miami weekend: “You simply cannot afford that. Sure, it’s the first year, you shouldn’t forget that. But still: You have to significantly reduce this error rate.”
Schumacher: “Dealing with problems openly and honestly”
“I think you could see from the outside that Nico Hülkenberg was annoyed that weekend,” Schumacher observed meanwhile – and he understands. Because it cannot be that “something is constantly pushing or scratching or burning or failing or not working.”
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In the championship, Audi has fallen to ninth place after the third zero score in a row, thus behind Williams. Since Bortoleto’s ninth place at the season opener in Melbourne, the team has scored no points. That was two months ago now.
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Schumacher is not only bothered by the defects themselves. “The communication is simply a disaster,” he criticizes and emphasizes that Audi is basically “a likeable team.” However, they often make a big secret out of problems.
“I don’t know where Audi’s confidence comes from to communicate so poorly,” Schumacher wonders, emphasizing: “There is always a need for explanation when you build something and it doesn’t work.”
In his opinion, the right approach would be to deal with it “openly and honestly.” “Then it’s immediately likeable,” he stresses. But with Audi, it is often exactly the opposite.
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