Aston Martin make approach for Audi boss Wheatley

Audi team principal Jonathan Wheatley has been targeted by Aston Martin to lead their troubled Formula 1 team.

Aston Martin team owner Lawrence Stroll has made Wheatley an offer to run the race team under managing technical partner Adrian Newey but no contract has yet been signed, insiders have told BBC Sport.

Wheatley joined Audi only a year ago and has been based at its chassis headquarters in Hinwil in Switzerland. Among the reasons for his desire to move on is said to be the appeal of a return to the UK.

However, Wheatley’s existing contract with Audi means it could be some time before he is able to join Aston Martin.

An Aston Martin spokesperson said: “The team will not be engaging in media speculation about its senior leadership team. Adrian Newey continues to lead the team as team principal and managing technical partner.”

An Audi spokesperson said: “We are aware of the recent media reports. There is no official update from our side at this point in time and we do not comment on speculation.”

BBC Sport approached Wheatley for comment but he was unavailable.

Signing Wheatley would allow Newey to focus his full attention on his main area of expertise, designing the car, and free him up from the other areas that fall under a team principal’s remit.

Newey stepped into the role as team principal, in addition to his wider role, in November last year after problems emerged in his relationship with then team principal and chief executive officer Andy Cowell. It was never intended to be a long-term position for Newey.

Cowell is now focusing on helping engine partner Honda resolve problems with its new power unit, which has started the season lacking performance and reliability.

Former Red Bull team principal Christian Horner, who was linked to Aston Martin last November, has met with Stroll this week.

However, Newey is said by sources to be opposed to Horner joining the team.

Stroll signed Newey on a contract which could be worth as much as £30m a year -including all possible bonuses and add-ons – hoping he would be the final part in the jigsaw that turned the team into winners.

But Aston Martin are last in the world championship after what amounts to a disastrous start to the season.

The car is not yet competitive. Newey’s arrival in March last year, combined with problems with their new wind tunnel, has led to its development being delayed but the 67-year-old is confident the chassis can be made competitive over the course of this season.

The bigger problem is the Honda engine, which has suffered major reliability problems and is short on power and energy recovery.

The engine has vibrations which were causing the batteries to fail in pre-season testing, leaving the team very short on parts for the first two races of the season.

A workaround was found to isolate the batteries from the vibration, which allowed the car to run for longer. But the vibrations are still being transferred to the chassis and into the drivers’ hands.

Fernando Alonso was withdrawn from the Chinese Grand Prix last Sunday because the vibrations were causing too much discomfort.

Alonso said: “I could not probably finish the race anyway. Vibrations level were very high today. At one point, from lap 20 to 35, I was struggling a little bit to feel my hands and my feet. We were one lap behind, we were last. It was probably no point to keep on going.”

Honda has admitted it does not yet know the source of the vibrations.

The hybrid engine is lacking power from the internal combustion engine and its electrical elements are not able to work at the full 350kw limit.

Alonso has leapt from 17th on the grid to 10th at the end of the first lap in both races so far this season, only to fall back through the field because he cannot defend against cars with more power and electrical recovery and deployment.

Wheatley and former Ferrari team principal Mattia Binotto had been operating in a dual leadership role, with Binotto primarily overseeing the engine and chassis factories in Germany and Switzerland and Wheatley in charge of the race team.

Wheatley’s expected departure amounts to the third management restructure at Audi F1 in less than two years.