Audi’s First-Ever F1 Car Looks Both Totally New and Totally Audi

Formula 1 fans can be excused for having put thoughts about Audi’s entry into the booming series on the backburner in recent months. As of this writing, three races remain in what has been a compelling 2025 F1 season, with a driver’s championship still to be settled. And while there has been no shortage of talk and ink spilled about the 2026 campaign that begins in less than four months in Melbourne, Australia, on March 6–8, much of it has focused on F1’s new technical era.

The new formula mandates slightly shorter, narrower, lighter cars that also feature marginally narrower tires, increased reliance on their powertrains’ hybrid electric systems for a 50/50 power split between the combustion engine and battery-electric system, less downforce, and more advanced active aerodynamics in place of today’s simpler rear-wing-only Drag Reduction System.

Cadillac, too, has pulled its fair share of headlines, as the automaker becomes the first of the Big Three to enter the series as a full American factory team. Its recruitment of IndyCar star and California native Colton Herta as test driver with an eye toward graduating to F1—after at least a year of racing in F2 next season—has likewise garnered plenty of attention.

But now it’s Audi’s turn to draw eyeballs back its way, and the German automaker did so today at a showcase event it hosted in Munich, Germany, where it took the wraps off a non-running show car dubbed the R26 Concept featuring an early look at its 2026 F1 livery.

See All 7 Photos7

Simple but Recognizable

Unlike Cadillac, Audi isn’t building its F1 team from the ground up; rather, it’s taking full control of the eponymous Sauber squad with which Swiss motorsports legend Peter Sauber entered F1 in 1993. For the past two seasons, Sauber has featured an eye-catching bright green, black, and white car identity supporting the colors of sponsors Kick (an Australian streaming service) and Stake (a Curaçaoan crypto-based online gambling platform). Audi’s new livery unsurprisingly features silver—one of Germany’s traditional motor racing colors dating to the 1930s—covering the car’s front half, with the manufacturer’s corporate shade of fluorescent red and black occupying the rear section.

More specifically, the silver is the same new titanium hue seen on Audi’s Concept C we drove recently, while Lava Red is a fresh shade for what the company calls the next generation of its products. As for the black, it’s unpainted carbon fiber with a glossy finish.

See All 7 Photos7

Expect to see the titanium and Lava Red make their way onto Audi’s production models in the near future, the company told us during the F1 livery reveal. As for the exposed carbon fiber on the real race car next year, we won’t be surprised if it’s left matte to save weight, a common F1 practice.

The pseudo-glowing Lava Red hits also trim other bits including the airbox and sidepod inlets, as well as Audi’s standard four-rings logo placed prominently on the R26 Concept’s nose, engine cover, and rear wing. It’s far from a wild or particularly original-looking design; some might call it boring or too reserved. But it will at least be instantly identifiable by fans and commentators whenever drivers Nico Hülkenberg and Gabriel Bortoleto take to the 24 tracks that comprise F1’s 2026 calendar.

Oh, and for detail-oriented F1 fans, you’re not seeing things: That is indeed a Lava Red graphics treatment on the concept’s Pirellis, a bespoke element the company did for this reveal instead of providing rubber with the typical darker shade of red that during race weekends denotes the supplier’s soft-compound tires.

See All 7 Photos7

This official car livery isn’t as in-your-face loud as the one Audi showed off when it announced its F1 plans back in the summer of 2022, but it’s certainly more friendly to clearly displaying the sponsor logos that will be present on the race-spec version. Speaking of which, contracts prohibited Audi from including those during this initial reveal, and there are ongoing negotiations to complete with several incoming commercial partners. We expect the first of those deals to be made public in December, with more to follow in the new year. Previously confirmed backers include British financial tech company Revolut, which has signed on as the team’s main title sponsor, Adidas as Audi’s official apparel provider, and BP as its fuel and lubricants partner. The latter is set to promote both its main BP and Castrol brands via the deal.

Though the car seen here is merely a showpiece on which to present the livery, the real F1 machine will indeed by called the R26, and Audi says this livery is quite close to the final article, save for changes required to accommodate sponsors’ branding and to work with the true race car’s physical bodywork lines and geometries.

Eagle-eyed Audi enthusiasts might notice a lack of “Audi Sport” branding seen often on the company’s race cars. That’s because the F1 project is intended to represent Audi as a whole and not only the Audi Sport division, which operates as a subsidiary of the mothership and isn’t responsible for the F1 program.

See All 7 Photos7

Great Expectations

Perhaps amusingly and certainly notable for the trivia crowd, Sauber’s original F1 entry came with support from Mercedes-Benz on the heels of the two companies’ close association while racing previously for several years in Group C sports car competition. What’s more, from 2006–2009, BMW held a majority stake in the Sauber F1 operation, meaning that with Audi’s acquisition of the team, Sauber will have single-handedly been tied to Germany’s own “big three” automakers (with Volkswagen Group owning Audi), as well as Alfa Romeo from 2017–23, in grand prix racing.

All told, Sauber’s best championship finish while competing under the independent Sauber banner in F1 is fourth in the 2001 Constructors’ Championship with drivers Kimi Räikkönen and Nick Heidfeld. Racing with BMW’s backing, it finished second in the 2007 Constructors’ standings with Heidfeld and Robert Kubica, with the latter scoring the team’s only win at the 2008 Canadian Grand Prix, with Heidfeld following him home in second for what remains the team’s best-ever result by far.

Long-term results like these won’t cut it for Audi or for any manufacturer-owned team, even in today’s cost-capped era that will still see teams spending upward of $215 million per season beginning next year. Audi’s five-year plan targets competing for race wins and championships by the 2030 season.

See All 7 Photos7

To that end, the team has boosted its resources over the past couple of seasons with its eye on 2026. It now boasts three separate facilities: Sauber’s existing headquarters in Hinwil, Switzerland, where chassis development continues to take place at a facility that boasts one of largest full-scale wind tunnels used in F1; new real estate added to Audi’s existing motorsports facility in Neuburg, Germany, where the full powertrain (1.6-liter turbocharged combustion engine, hybrid system, and gearbox) is designed and built; and an outpost near the U.K.’s Silverstone Circuit, an area loaded with F1 know-how and experienced personnel, that serves as a support center for the team in Hinwil.

According to Audi team leaders we spoke to, there are approximately 430 employees working on the powertrain in Germany, and a total of approximately 750 F1 team members total across the three locations, with about 250 new hires made over the past two years. That brings the former Sauber operation nearer to F1’s existing major players that boast 1,000 or more staff, and the ramp up is sure to continue.

See All 7 Photos7

With F1’s new regulations for 2026, Audi on one hand has a chance to be more competitive than if it had joined the series at a time when established teams had multiple years of data and experience with an existing rules package. The team in Hinwil, for instance, has years of experience with aerodynamics and chassis development, and with Audi’s greater resources added to the mix, it’s possible it could produce a solid car at a time when every F1 squad is also trying to adapt to and find the best solutions for the new aero package.

On the other hand, the powertrain is the great unknown as this is Audi’s first attempt at building such a gas-electric hybrid unit. The new rules call for a 50/50 split between the combustion engine and the hybrid drive in terms of producing the roughly 1,000-hp total peak output, compared to 80/20 under the outgoing regulations that date back to 2014. No matter how many simulation tools the team has at its disposal, it has no existing powertrain data to compare it to, and no previous on-track running to correlate with. That’s a major reason why it targets 2030 as its time to reach the front of F1’s competitive order. And as Mattia Binotto, head of Audi’s F1 project acknowledged in Munich, “It’s possible, but ambitious. It could take longer.”

To his point and as numerous teams have found over the years, competing successfully in F1 is a tall order no matter what timeline you put on it. For now, at least we know what Audi’s car will mostly look like when it fires its first shot come Australia in March.