Audi's '€1billion miscalculation' forced the team to sign Zhou Guanyu at Sauber for 2024 claims F1 pundit
F1 pundit Ralf Schumacher has claimed that Audi had to keep Zhou Guanyu on the team after they suffered a whopping €1,000,000,000 miscalculation in their financial records. Schumacher said that the Chinese driver's sponsorship money helped sustain the German company's F1 project.
As F1 gradually moves towards 2026, Audi prepares to enter the sport for the first time by acquiring Sauber. The German giants had announced their prospective participation in 2022 and progressively acquired Sauber by buying a small stake in the Swiss team every year.
The German auto giants also plan to bring in a brand-new driver lineup and prepare them for the 2026 F1 season. They recently announced Nico Hulkenberg as their new driver in 2025 but have not yet announced which of the two current drivers they will remove, Valtteri Bottas or Zhou Guanyu.
The team also took a drastic step and hired Ferrari's ex-team principal Mattia Binotto as chief operation and technical officer. The Italian has now replaced both Andreas Seidl and Oliver Hoffmann, who were reportedly involved in a power struggle in the team.
Speaking to Sky Germany, Ralf Schumacher revealed that Audi had another major issue apart from the intra-team tussle. He claimed that the German giants made a small miscalculation that resulted in a massive financial hole in their F1 project. The hole was claimed to be around €1,000,000,000. He then clarified that he received this information through a rumor.
"The project was actually on the brink of collapse at Audi because there was apparently a small miscalculation, amounting to around €1 billion. At least that’s the rumour," Schumacher said.
Schumacher claimed that to revive their F1 project, they had to keep Zhou Guanyu for the 2024 F1 season and use the money he was bringing to sustain themselves.
"This called into question what was happening. The team had to be refinanced because no money had flowed in. Hence the decision to keep Zhou Guanyu as a driver and take the money. As a result, nothing could happen. There were no people to hire and no prospects to offer. Then the whole issue was simply left as it was before," he added.
Zhou Guanyu keen to stay at Sauber and work with Audi from 2026
Before the 2024 F1 season began, Zhou Guanyu said that it would be ideal for him to remain with Sauber and work with Audi in the future.
Speaking to RacingNews365, Guanyu wanted to stay on the team and see what happens in 2025, which he feels will be an important year for Audi. Though he acknowledged other options apart from his current team, he prioritized finishing the 2024 F1 season with a decent amounts of points.
"In my ideal world, the first priority is to stay with the team and to stay in a factory team, and also what happens next year will have a big impact to Audi coming," Guanyu said.
"So it's definitely the priority to try to do well here, to see us growing, to our progression. Of course, there are plenty of opportunities out there but the main target is to finish this season in a very strong position," he added.
After the first 13 races, however, Zhou Guanyu and Sauber have scored no points on both the Drivers' and Constructors' Championship tables.