{"id":55728,"date":"2026-01-09T09:40:13","date_gmt":"2026-01-09T14:40:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/newssprinters.com\/index.php\/sport\/f1-2026-up-and-running-audi-complete-first-laps-in-new-car\/09\/01\/2026\/"},"modified":"2026-01-09T09:40:21","modified_gmt":"2026-01-09T14:40:21","slug":"f1-2026-up-and-running-audi-complete-first-laps-in-new-car","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/newssprinters.com\/index.php\/sport\/f1-2026-up-and-running-audi-complete-first-laps-in-new-car\/09\/01\/2026\/","title":{"rendered":"F1 2026 up and running! Audi complete first laps in new car"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>\n<\/p>\n<div>\n<p>Audi has completed the first laps of its all-new Formula 1 project at Spain&#8217;s Circuit de Catalunya.<\/p>\n<p>Audi completed its takeover of the Sauber project coming into 2026 and is racing this year as a fully-fledged manufacturer team, meaning it will build its own car and engines.<\/p>\n<p>Drivers <a data-player-guid=\"f6c03f13-47eb-f2a9-6d51-d3acff13722c\" href=\"http:\/\/www.espn.com\/rpm\/driver?seriesId=6&amp;driverId=4396\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener nofollow\">Nico H\u00fclkenberg<\/a> and <a data-player-guid=\"b559483d-5edd-3276-8ca5-65ea04dc60a8\" href=\"http:\/\/www.espn.com\/rpm\/driver?seriesId=6&amp;driverId=5835\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener nofollow\">Gabriel Bortoleto<\/a> both drove laps of the new car on Friday at the circuit as Audi utilised one of the two 100km filming days allocated to every team under the regulations.<\/p>\n<p>The Barcelona circuit will host an unofficial week of testing, arranged by the 11 teams, at the end of January, before F1&#8217;s two official preseason tests in Bahrain in February.<\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\" data-dnt=\"true\" align=\"center\">\n<p lang=\"it\" dir=\"ltr\">La prima monoposto 2026 e&#8217; Audi che sta girando al Montmelo&#8217;. <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/hashtag\/F1?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener nofollow\">#F1<\/a> <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/hashtag\/AudiF1?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener nofollow\">#AudiF1<\/a> <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/hashtag\/ShakeDown?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener nofollow\">#ShakeDown<\/a> <a href=\"https:\/\/t.co\/5sNcSE2Bx9\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener nofollow\">pic.twitter.com\/5sNcSE2Bx9<\/a><\/p>\n<p>\u2014 RobertoF1 (@robertofunoat) <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/robertofunoat\/status\/2009602247320305855?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener nofollow\">January 9, 2026<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<aside class=\"inline editorial float-r\" data-behavior=\"article_related\">\n<h2 class=\"editorial-title\">Editor&#8217;s Picks<\/h2>\n<p>2 Related<\/p>\n<\/aside>\n<p>Despite a long and storied history in motor racing, which includes 13 Le Mans 24 Hours triumphs and four World Rally Championships, 2026 is Audi&#8217;s first foray into Formula 1 in any capacity since the championship started in 1950.<\/p>\n<p>The company inherited Sauber&#8217;s Swiss headquarters in Hinwil, which will continue to operate as its car-building hub, while its engine programme is located out of a facility in Neuburg an der Donau, Germany.<\/p>\n<p>Audi&#8217;s F1 team is led by former Red Bull sporting director Jonathan Wheatley, while ex-Ferrari team boss Mattia Binotto is CEO of the wider project.<\/p>\n<p>Audi is one of two new engine projects on the grid this season &#8212; Red Bull is building its own engines this year in conjunction with Ford &#8212; and one of two new teams, with American outfit Cadillac also set to debut, albeit as a brand new entity built from the ground up.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<p><script async src=\"\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.espn.co.uk\/f1\/story\/_\/id\/47559843\/f1-2026-running-audi-complete-first-laps-new-car\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener nofollow\">Source link <\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Audi has completed the first laps of its all-new Formula 1 project at Spain&rsquo;s Circuit de Catalunya. Audi completed its takeover of<br \/><button class=\"read-more\"><a href=\"https:\/\/newssprinters.com\/index.php\/sport\/f1-2026-up-and-running-audi-complete-first-laps-in-new-car\/09\/01\/2026\/\">Read More &rsaquo;<\/a><\/button><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":55729,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_seopress_robots_primary_cat":"","_seopress_titles_title":"","_seopress_titles_desc":"","_seopress_robots_index":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[213],"tags":[5600,1066,3949,7582,2869],"fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/a4.espncdn.com\/combiner\/i?img=%2Fphoto%2F2026%2F0109%2Fr1598407_1296x729_16%2D9.jpg","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/newssprinters.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/55728"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/newssprinters.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/newssprinters.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newssprinters.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newssprinters.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=55728"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/newssprinters.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/55728\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":55730,"href":"https:\/\/newssprinters.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/55728\/revisions\/55730"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newssprinters.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/55729"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/newssprinters.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=55728"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newssprinters.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=55728"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newssprinters.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=55728"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}