Formula 1 Experts Are Bullish on Audi’s Inaugural Season

[Source: ESPN]

We are now just ten days away from the first Formula 1 race of the 2026 season. It will of course be the first ever race for the Audi Revolut F1 Team. All along Audi has told us to temper our expectations and that the team doesn’t expect to compete for the championship until 2030. But where will they finish this year? The Formula 1 experts over at ESPN have made their prediction and they are bullish on the Audi team.

After testing wrapped up in Bahrain last week, I did my own analysis based on what I saw out of Audi and the other teams on the grid. I feel confident that Audi will finish ahead of Cadillac and Aston Martin in the Constructor’s Championship. Both of those teams seem well off the pace and are poised to be back markers in 2026. That puts Audi at no worse than ninth place. But I could also see a scenario where Audi finishes ahead of either the Williams or Racing Bulls team. With that in mind, my prediction was a floor of ninth place and ceiling of eighth place. ESPN thinks Audi will do even better.

ESPN predicts that Audi will finish in seventh place this year. Their full rankings are: 1 – Mercedes, 2 – Ferrari, 3 – McLaren, 4 – Red Bull, 5 – Haas, 6 – Alpine, 7 – Audi, 8 – Racing Bulls, 9 – Williams, 10 – Cadillac, 11 – Aston Martin.

Finishing in seventh place would be a major accomplishment for the brand-new Audi team. It is slightly better than I expect, but anything can happen. Still, the overall goal this year is to gather data and become more competitive as the year progresses. “Understanding its new power unit and then making progress with it are the key yardsticks for Audi at this time, rather than outright performance,” said ESPN F1 expert Nate Saunders. But he also said, “Audi might be slow to get going in 2026, but the baseline appears to be decent.”

The truth is that none of us really know what to expect in this Formula 1 season that is full of change. In 2025 the seventh-place team was Aston Martin with 89 points. That included a P5 finish for Alonso in Hungary. If Audi can match that success in their first year out, that would be an impressive start and put them on track for a championship in 2030.