Former racing star Ralf Schumacher has claimed that Audi is in ‘crisis’ and that the mood could turn on their F1 investment if the team doesn’t improve their fortunes quickly.

Audi officially joined the F1 grid in 2026, but made their commitment to the sport back in 2022, taking over chunks of Sauber before a full acquisition in 2024 and a full rebrand for this season.

Taking over at Sauber and producing their own engine means that the brand has already made significant investment, and more will be required if they are to meet their publicly stated ambition of challenging for an F1 title by 2030.

Schumacher, though, has warned that 2030 could come too late, with his ‘crisis’ comment likely pointing to declining sales and revenue in the first half of 2026.

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Ralf Schumacher’s bleak Audi warning

The Brand Group Progressive, which incorporates Audi, Lamborghini and Bentley, revealed that they delivered 7.2 per cent fewer cars in the first half of 2026 compared to 2025, with sales revenues (€29.2bn) also falling by 10.4 per cent.

The numbers are still substantial, but the group has also seen its operating profit decline in recent years, from €6.280bn in 2023 to €3.371bn in 2025.

Asked about the situation at Audi by BILD, Schumacher said: “I was very happy for Nico that he scored his first points before the summer break. But Audi needs to do more than just send a signal to its own company.

“They’re currently in crisis, and I think the racing team needs to show some success so that the mood at Audi doesn’t turn against their Formula 1 investment.

“Aiming for the World Championship in 2030 – that could be too late. Success needs to come sooner.”

Audi’s 2026 so far

Audi are a long way from challenging for titles at present, with the team currently sitting eighth in the F1 constructors’ standings at this stage of the season.

The team could realistically still finish as the seventh-best constructor this year, with Haas just five points ahead. But with Williams only five behind and a rejuvenated Aston Martin, finishing as low as 10th is also a possibility.

To be clear, Audi are doing just fine for a new team that has just introduced its own works engine for the first time.

However, Schumacher’s comments suggest that the need for success is far more pressing than the 2030 timeline would make you believe, and that the team needs to start taking steps towards that sooner rather than later.

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McLaren team principal Andrea Stella has claimed that his team and Red Bull’s appeal against the result of this year’s Monaco Grand Prix is about nothing less than the integrity of the sport.

The teams went to the FIA’s International Court of Appeal on Tuesday to dispute the result of June’s race, which was won by Mercedes‘ Kimi Antonelli.

The issue centres around a number of penalties handed out during the chaotic race for pitlane speeding, including Oscar Piastri, George Russell and Pierre Gasly. All of the penalties were served in-race except for Gasly’s, who had two five-second penalties added to his time at the end of the race – dropping him from third over the line to seventh.

However, it was later discovered that the speeding offences had all been caused by a timing loop error at the start of the pitlane. Alpine submitted a Right of Review against their driver’s time penalties, which were removed – pushing him back up to third and knocking Red Bull’s Isack Hadjar off the podium, with McLaren’s Oscar Piastri also demoted.

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Monaco shambles hit some drivers worse than others

The apparent unfairness of Gasly’s penalties being the only ones to be lifted because of the error has rankled with some, as the likes of Piastri and Lewis Hamilton were effectively punished for serving their mistaken penalties in-race.

That counts double for George Russell, who not only served his five-second penalty but also a subsequent drive-through penalty for incorrectly serving his pitlane speeding punishment.

Russell finished out of the points in 12th, thanks to a series of events kicked off by mistakenly applied penalties – which one, and only one, driver avoided serving.

Why are McLaren appealing Monaco Grand Prix result?

Stella explained that his team have two motivations for their appeal this week, saying: “We go to the hearing at the International Court of Appeal with a double intent. The first intent is more general than the interest of McLaren.

“We think that the process that happened after the race in Monaco needs to be reviewed because from fairness for all competitors, the fact that the penalty was removed introduces some significant elements of concern. And we would like to take the opportunity of the International Court of Appeal for a clarification of this aspect.

“There’s obviously more related to this case. It can go into the technical aspects of how the pit limiter speed was calculated. But for me, at a high level, it’s more the fairness and the principle that needs to be clarified and possibly reinstated.”

Stella: Appeal is for McLaren, but also sporting integrity

He added: “The second aspect is the interest of McLaren ourselves. We were also materially penalised for having served a penalty that is not appealable. And this cost us points in the championship.

“So, there’s a general interest for Formula 1 and the integrity of the sport. And there’s a material interest for McLaren in terms of our championship impact. These are the two points of view, the two perspectives that we would like to pursue and seek clarification for in the coming International Court of Appeal.”

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Fernando Alonso described Aston Martin’s recent progress as “incredible” at the F1 Dutch Grand Prix, but team principal Adrian Newey believes there is still even more to come.

The team in green are still running near the back of the field after a disastrous first half of 2026, but everything is very relative. Until recently they had been a laughing stock, struggling to even battle with rookie team Cadillac.

However on Sunday, after Newey’s comments, Alonso picked up the team’s second and third points of the season with a smooth drive to take ninth place ahead of the Alpine of Pierre Gasly.

After Saturday’s action at Zandvoort the two-time world champion Alonso raved about how Newey’s chassis upgrades (he brought a massive 16 to the Hungarian Grand Prix and five more to Zandvoort) are transforming the team’s fortunes.

He explained: “In Budapest we made it to Q2, and here we were just one-tenth away,” Alonso continued. “Plus, this is the smallest margin behind the Q1 leader. Piastri was 1.3 seconds [+0.955s] ahead of us. Before, we had an average gap of 4.5 seconds to the best, so we’ve improved by three seconds over two races. It’s encouraging.

“It’s incredible; everything is working as planned. But it’s a tough sport, and you always have to improve.”

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Newey says there is ‘more potential to unlock’

If Alonso is happy with the evidence from the last two race weekends, he will be even happier when he hears what design genius Newey had to say after Saturday’s action in the Netherlands. He believes there is still more to come.

“Despite the limited practice running of a sprint event, the weekend so far has given us valuable track time to better understand the characteristics of our recent upgrades and the updated power unit.

“Both drivers are reporting significant steps forward with the chassis and aero performance.

“The key takeaway is that we need to improve the drivability, and doing so will help us find more performance.

“Our pace is much improved compared to a couple of races ago – but we know there’s more potential to unlock from this package.”

Honda question mark, and Alonso future

As Newey rightly pointed out, the big question mark right now is that much-maligned Honda power unit. It got its first upgrade at Zandvoort but there are clearly teething problems to resolve.

Alonso’s team-mate Lance Stroll described it as ‘a lottery’ after qualifying on Saturday – saying drivability and power are the two big issues for the team right now.

Whether Honda can prove they are capable of delivering or not could well decide the future of Alonso in the sport. The 45-year-old is currently considering whether to sign a new deal with Aston Martin for 2027 and beyond.

Alonso’s other options right now appear to be a move to another team (limited potential here with Alpine the only real rumoured landing spot) or retirement.

F1 RESULTS: Full times, finishing positions and penalties from Dutch Grand Prix

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