F1: Beat Zehnder leaves Audi after 39 years at Sauber

Beat Zehnder, a long-time fixture of Sauber, now Audi F1, will leave the Hinwil operation at the end of 2026. Audi announced it on Friday, ahead of the Mexican Grand Prix, citing the restructuring of its operations ahead of 2027. It ends a 39-year association with the team.

A career woven into Sauber's history

The Swiss engineer joined Sauber in 1988, five years before the team's F1 debut. He first worked in the sportscar programme, which according to F1i won the 24 Hours of Le Mans and the World Sportscar Championship. When Sauber entered F1 in 1993, he was there from day one.

He became team manager the following year, a role he held for more than two decades, and joined the team's management committee in 2018. F1i counts 601 consecutive Grands Prix; formel1.de speaks of more than 600 Grands Prix in F1, after 36 races in the World Sportscar Championship.

Top drivers alongside him

Over the years Zehnder worked with world champions Kimi Räikkönen and Sebastian Vettel, and with Grand Prix winners including Charles Leclerc, Sergio Pérez, Robert Kubica, Felipe Massa and Heinz-Harald Frentzen.

From the circuit to the team's heritage

At the end of 2024 he closed his trackside chapter and moved into a senior role in the team's heritage area: Director of Signature Programs and Operations, after Audi took over Sauber. According to formel1.de, he still cheered loudly from home when Nico Hülkenberg took a surprise podium at Silverstone in 2025.

In its statement Audi thanks Zehnder for 39 years of work and describes him as a mentor to hundreds of team members and drivers who passed through Hinwil, who never lost his professionalism or his drive to win.

The sources do not say who will take over his duties or what the team's organisation will look like in 2027.