Beat Zehnder is out at Audi F1, ending a 39-year run that predates the team's first grand prix. The 60-year-old Swiss joined Sauber's sportscar program as a mechanic, rose to team manager through most of its F1 tenure, and held a factory director role after Audi's takeover. His exit comes amid what Audi calls "restructuring ahead of the 2027 season" — corporate speak for another round of personnel churn. Zehnder worked 601 consecutive races, a streak that speaks to old Sauber's stability more than Audi's revolving door. The timing cuts deep: Audi's jettisoning the last institutional memory from the Sauber era just as it preps for its first full works season. Whether that's smart pruning or a catastrophic knowledge drain depends entirely on who replaces him and whether Audi has finally sorted out what it's building.
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