Despite leaving the 2026 F1 Miami GP without points, Audi‘s Racing Director Allan McNish noted several positive takeaways as the team prepares for their Montreal updates.
After facing reliability issues throughout the first three races, Miami saw Nico Hülkenberg retire ahead of the Sprint due to an engine failure in his Audi R26. The German, however, quickly recovered to qualify P10 before retiring again in Sunday’s race. Meanwhile, despite being disqualified from the Sprint, Gabriel Bortoleto, who started P21 in the GP, made an impressive comeback to finish just outside the points in P12.
McNish on Audi’s raw pace
Speaking after the 2026 F1 Miami GP, McNish noted that despite their difficulties, clear encouraging signs have been visible, as Audi was one of the few teams that didn’t bring upgrades to Miami. Notably, McLaren, Ferrari, and Red Bull brought the most significant front-to-back changes.
“Certainly, it’s true because we didn’t come with the package that some of the competition did. So, from that perspective, I would say the raw pace of the car,” he said, before praising Hülkenberg’s recovery from a Sprint DNS to P10 in qualifying.
“And also, when you talk about Nico, I’ve got to say, from what he did yesterday with the problem before to go into qualifying and then bring it on the edge of Q3, I thought was pretty impressive. Showing his experience and the fact that his capability there.”
He continued: “Certainly, we know that, like it always is, when you’ve got a new regulation or a new season and there’s bigger gaps, they naturally closed out. So, the gaps that you see through there, like in the likes of William’s improved the race pace performance today, as an example. So, it is going to get harder and harder. So, it’s not as if we can sit and just hope that upgrades. We also have to improve in other areas as well. But ultimately, I think the underlying car performance, chassis performance is pretty good.”
Small and steady changes
When asked about whether Audi is bringing updates for the 2026 F1 Canadian GP, McNish shared:
“Yeah, we will be. Canada is quite specific, so is Monaco. In reality, those are pretty specific circuits, same as Monza. It’s a little bit more related towards Canada. But we do have things. We had a front floor upgrade here and some front brake ducts, but small relative to what I would have said the majority of the competition came.”
However, he further stressed that, with or without upgrades, the team is still in the early phase of the project. Meaning that their true pace and performance should be assessed over the course of the season as they continue to adapt:
“The thing we’ve got to remember as well is that this is race four for a new team. We know that Sauber was there before. However, it’s also the integration of Audi power unit into that system as well. And so, therefore, we… judge us at the end of the year,” he jokingly concluded.
Teams’ Standings battle
Alpine currently leads the midfield battle against Audi, Haas, Williams, and Racing Bulls, having so far scored points at every Grand Prix. Despite Pierre Gasly’s accident at the Miami GP, McNish noted that Alpine has made a noticeable step forward:
“Yeah, they were,” he said, referring to how they looked strong in the race. Colapinto finished over 20s clear of Sainz on the road in the midfield battle.
Analysing their situation in the fight, he explained that he expects the battle to go until the Abu Dhabi finale:
“I see it going all the way to the end of the year. At the end of the day, you’ve got the teams at the front who are the big established teams. And then there’s that fight, which is a difficult fight because you’re fighting on the edge of Q3. You’re fighting on the edge of the points. And those are going to be the difference at the end of the season. Alpine definitely stepped up here. Let’s see when we go to Montreal.”
Beyond Alpine, Haas also remains a great threat to Audi, even though the American team struggled to score points this weekend.
“Because as you said, Haas maybe didn’t quite have the performance that they’ve had previously,” he said. “And the development rate through the season is going to change race to race a little bit in that mid-grid area, I would say. But the other thing is that we are working on quite fine margins. So we do have to keep on evolving them.”
