Jonathan Wheatley
Former Audi Salary
Former Audi Team Principal
Jonathan Wheatley's Salary After His Exit From Audi
Jonathan Wheatley doesn’t have an F1 salary in 2026. He left Audi on March 20, less than a year after starting as team principal at Sauber, and no other team has hired him since.
Audi never published what it paid him, and the terms of his exit are private. A 2026 figure would cover under three months of work, so there’s no honest way to turn it into an annual number. Salary figures online for his Red Bull and Sauber years are modeled from general assumptions rather than taken from any contract he signed.
Publishes a $10m net worth for Wheatley and modeled past wages, built on generic assumptions rather than his contracts.
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He won the sprint and the Grand Prix, and at $70m a year he's still the best-paid driver on the grid.
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Per Point
$317k
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What Each Point Now Costs Red Bull
What Wheatley Did as Audi Team Principal
For just under a year, Wheatley was team principal in Hinwil, first under the Sauber name from April 2025 and then as Audi from January 2026. He led the team’s day-to-day operation, while Mattia Binotto headed the wider Audi F1 project, power unit included, from May 2025.
His grounding was the garage. Wheatley started as a Benetton mechanic and spent 18 years at Red Bull, first as team manager and then as sporting director. In his first season in charge, Nico Hülkenberg finished third at Silverstone for Sauber’s first podium since 2012.
Profile of Wheatley's route through Benetton, Renault, and Red Bull to the Sauber and Audi team principal job.
Reports Audi's March 2026 announcement that Wheatley was leaving his team principal role with immediate effect.
Covers his August 2026 paddock visit and the Aston Martin talk, which hasn't turned into a confirmed job.
Formula 1's guide to the 2026 team bosses, useful for who replaced Wheatley and who leads each rival team.
How Wheatley's Old Job Compares Across the Paddock
Wheatley wasn’t the only one of the F1 team principals to leave in 2026, as Cadillac replaced Graeme Lowdon in August. Among bosses still in post, Ayao Komatsu of Haas is on £600k-1.5m ($795k-2m) in our bands, and Wheatley’s Audi successor Mattia Binotto is on £2m-5m ($2.7m-6.6m).
Jonathan Wheatley's Career History Since Benetton
Wheatley joined Benetton as a mechanic in 1991 and worked his way up from the garage floor to become a team principal 34 years later.
Wheatley's Place in Audi's Short F1 History
Wheatley was the first team principal of the Audi F1 team and is no longer on its staff. Mattia Binotto absorbed his job in March and became CEO and Team Principal in April. Ignacio Rueda, sporting director since October 2024, does the rules job that Wheatley did at Red Bull from 2018 to 2024.
Jonathan Wheatley Questions Answered
There’s no 2026 salary on record for Jonathan Wheatley, because he left Audi on March 20 and hasn’t joined another team. Audi never disclosed what it paid him as team principal, and his exit terms are private. Anything quoted online for his earlier years comes from modeling, not from a contract.
Nobody has produced a credible net worth for Jonathan Wheatley. Published estimates of $10m and $22.5m contradict each other, and neither comes with any account of his assets or debts. The lower one is built from generic salary assumptions, so neither is a reliable guide to what he’s worth.
Jonathan Wheatley left Audi on March 20, 2026, when the team announced he’d go with immediate effect. It came two races into Audi’s first season and less than a year after he’d started as Sauber team principal in April 2025. Mattia Binotto took over his duties straight away.
Mattia Binotto took over from Jonathan Wheatley and now leads Audi’s F1 team as CEO and Team Principal, a title Audi confirmed in April 2026. Allan McNish joined at the same time as racing director and handles racing direction, while Binotto keeps overall charge of the Hinwil, Neuburg, and Bicester operations.
Not so far. Jonathan Wheatley hasn’t joined Aston Martin or any other team as of late September 2026. He was seen in the F1 paddock in August amid reports linking him with the team, but nothing has been announced, and Adrian Newey remains Aston Martin’s team principal.