Jonathan Wheatley, who has been a crucial part of Red Bull Racing as their Sporting Director, is finally set to step into a role he has long aspired to and that is of a team principal. After leaving Red Bull at the end of 2024, Wheatley will serve one year of gardening leave before taking the responsibility of team principal at Audi in 2026.
However, while Wheatley has vast experience in racing operations, there’s one crucial aspect of the team principal role that might catch him off guard—media interactions. In a recent conversation on the Sky Sports F1 podcast, Formula 1 pundits Ted Kravitz and Matt Baker discussed Wheatley’s appointment and highlighted a key challenge he might face.
Kravitz noted that Wheatley lacks experience in the kind of extensive media engagements that come with being a team principal. Kravitz remarked;
“As a team principal, he’s going to have to face the media. To my certain knowledge, I don’t think I’ve ever really seen an in-depth interview with Jonathan Wheatley. I’ve done the odd piece on pit stops before where Red Bull has allowed us to talk to him about Red Bull being the best at pit stops.”
Adding to this, Kravitz pointed out how Audi took three hours to confirm Wheatley’s appointment, leading to speculation about how comfortable he might be with public relations. Baker joked that Wheatley might be “paying the price of not having an Instagram account and not being the master of his own PR.”
BREAKING: Red Bull Sporting Director Jonathan Wheatley to leave the team to become Team Principal of the Audi F1 project#F1 pic.twitter.com/pO6Gzv5DpT
— Formula 1 (@F1) August 1, 2024
While Baker wasn’t sure if Wheatley had a social media presence, he was confident that the 57-year-old was not someone who actively managed his public image. This lack of social media presence suggests that Wheatley has limited experience in public relations, a skill that is important in the modern Formula 1 landscape.
