Even though Audi Revolut F1 placed a new engine in the R26 for Barcelona, a chance act of fate kept the team from truly realizing gains they may have made. Now, they head to Austria – not a home race, but close enough to home that it no doubt that it will still attract plenty of Audi fans.
SPIELBERG, AUSTRIA – JUNE 28: Nico Hulkenberg of Germany driving the (27) Audi F1 Team R26 leads Lando Norris of Great Britain driving the (1) McLaren MCL40 Mercedes on track during the F1 Grand Prix of Austria at Red Bull Ring on June 28, 2026 in Spielberg, Austria. (Photo by Clive Mason/Getty Images)
Audi Revolut F1 Team delivered a good race in the Spielberg sunshine, as Gabriel Bortoleto and Nico Hulkenberg just missed out on the top ten at the Austrian Grand Prix. Both drivers executed their races in a consistent manner, maximising their results and extracting as much pace as possible in the hot and demanding conditions; while the team also delivered a good performance, ensuring nothing was left on the table.
On a track predicted to be challenging for the team, the results credibly established Audi Revolut F1 Team as the sixth-fastest team this weekend and, while there are no points as a reward for this performance, it remains a confidence boost ahead of the remainder of the summer racing season.
Earlier in the day, Audi Development Programme driver, Freddie Slater, claimed another podium in his F3 season, finishing third in the feature race and battling for the win until the closing stages. He remains firmly in contention for the championship.
Both the team and Freddie will be back in action next week, as Formula One heads to the birthplace of the sport – Silverstone Circuit.
TEAM QUOTES
2026 Austrian Grand Prix – Saturday
Allan McNish, Racing Director “Overall, this weekend represents another important step forward for us as a team. I think we maximised the performance of the car across both qualifying and the race, and Nico and Gabi extracted everything that was available from our package.
“Around this circuit we simply didn’t quite have the qualifying performance to get ahead of the VCARBs yesterday, with the track characteristics not playing particularly well to our strengths at the moment, and today we couldn’t close that gap any further. That said, from an operational perspective it was an excellent weekend. The drivers, engineers and mechanics all executed well, the pit stops were strong, and everything worked exactly as we wanted it to.
“We leave Austria encouraged by the progress we have made and with another solid step in our development. Now the focus shifts to Silverstone, where we will look to continue building on that momentum.”
SPIELBERG, AUSTRIA – JUNE 28: Nico Hulkenberg of Germany and Audi F1 Team on the grid during the F1 Grand Prix of Austria at Red Bull Ring on June 28, 2026 in Spielberg, Austria. (Photo by Rudy Carezzevoli/Getty Images)
Nico Hulkenberg, Car #27 Race result: 12th Fastest lap: 1:11.634 (Lap 55) Strategy & Pit Stops: Start (New Medium) – Lap 21 (New Medium) – Lap 45 (New Hard)
“It was a difficult race to make much progress. We tried to create an advantage by extending the first stint, but with the amount of traffic and cars coming through to lap us, it didn’t really play out the way we had hoped. Looking back, maybe an earlier stop would have opened up a few more opportunities, but that’s easy to say afterwards.
“The positive is that our race pace was quite good. We were able to match, and at times even be a little quicker than, the cars around us, but starting further back made it difficult to convert that into a result.
“We’ll take the learnings into Silverstone. It’s a very different circuit and one I always enjoy, so hopefully we can put ourselves in a stronger position next weekend.”
SPIELBERG, AUSTRIA – JUNE 28: Gabriel Bortoleto of Brazil and Audi F1 Team on the grid prior to the F1 Grand Prix of Austria at Red Bull Ring on June 28, 2026 in Spielberg, Austria. (Photo by Andy Hone/LAT Images)
Gabriel Bortoleto, Car #5 Race result: 11th Fastest lap: 1:11.866 (Lap 59) Strategy & Pit Stops: Start (New Soft) – Lap 17 (New Medium) – Lap 44 (New Hard)
“I think we did the best we could today. I overtook the Alpine ahead of me, and we had really decent pace for most of the race, but I just couldn’t make it into the points as the VCARBs were just faster than us this weekend. It was a very cleanrace as well, so there wasn’t really any chaos or retirements ahead to take advantage of unlike in the last few races.
“Overall, we maximised everything we had this weekend. Our pace in qualifying was good, and the package we brought here worked as we expected. We just need to catch up a little bit to those ahead of us, and we’ll do our best to get there – starting with Silverstone next week.”
PHOTO GALLERY
2026 Austrian Grand Prix – Sunday2026 Austrian Grand Prix – Sunday2026 Austrian Grand Prix – Sunday2026 Austrian Grand Prix – Sunday2026 Austrian Grand Prix – Sunday2026 Austrian Grand Prix – SundaySPIELBERG, AUSTRIA – JUNE 28: The (27) Audi F1 Team R26 on the grid prior to the F1 Grand Prix of Austria at Red Bull Ring on June 28, 2026 in Spielberg, Austria. (Photo by Andy Hone/LAT Images)2026 Austrian Grand Prix – Sunday2026 Austrian Grand Prix – Sunday2026 Austrian Grand Prix – Sunday2026 Austrian Grand Prix – SundaySPIELBERG, AUSTRIA – JUNE 28: A detailed view of the cooling louvres of the Audi F1 Team R26 during the F1 Grand Prix of Austria at Red Bull Ring on June 28, 2026 in Spielberg, Austria. (Photo by Andy Hone/LAT Images)SPIELBERG, AUSTRIA – JUNE 28: Nico Hulkenberg of Germany and Audi F1 Team on the grid during the F1 Grand Prix of Austria at Red Bull Ring on June 28, 2026 in Spielberg, Austria. (Photo by Rudy Carezzevoli/Getty Images)2026 Austrian Grand Prix – SundaySPIELBERG, AUSTRIA – JUNE 28: Nico Hulkenberg of Germany driving the (27) Audi F1 Team R26 leads Oliver Bearman of Great Britain driving the (87) Haas F1 VF-26 Ferrari on track during the F1 Grand Prix of Austria at Red Bull Ring on June 28, 2026 in Spielberg, Austria. (Photo by Rudy Carezzevoli/Getty Images)SPIELBERG, AUSTRIA – JUNE 28: Gabriel Bortoleto of Brazil and Audi F1 Team on the grid prior to the F1 Grand Prix of Austria at Red Bull Ring on June 28, 2026 in Spielberg, Austria. (Photo by Andy Hone/LAT Images)SPIELBERG, AUSTRIA – JUNE 28: Gabriel Bortoleto of Brazil driving the (5) Audi F1 Team R26 leads Pierre Gasly of France driving the (10) Alpine F1 A526 Mercedes on track during the F1 Grand Prix of Austria at Red Bull Ring on June 28, 2026 in Spielberg, Austria. (Photo by Clive Rose/Getty Images)2026 Austrian Grand Prix – SundaySPIELBERG, AUSTRIA – JUNE 28: Nico Hulkenberg of Germany driving the (27) Audi F1 Team R26 on track during the F1 Grand Prix of Austria at Red Bull Ring on June 28, 2026 in Spielberg, Austria. (Photo by Manuel Eletto/LAT Images)SPIELBERG, AUSTRIA – JUNE 28: Nico Hulkenberg of Germany driving the (27) Audi F1 Team R26 on track during the F1 Grand Prix of Austria at Red Bull Ring on June 28, 2026 in Spielberg, Austria. (Photo by Andy Hone/LAT Images)2026 Austrian Grand Prix – SundaySPIELBERG, AUSTRIA – JUNE 28: Nico Hulkenberg of Germany driving the (27) Audi F1 Team R26 on track during the F1 Grand Prix of Austria at Red Bull Ring on June 28, 2026 in Spielberg, Austria. (Photo by Andy Hone/LAT Images)SPIELBERG, AUSTRIA – JUNE 28: Gabriel Bortoleto of Brazil driving the (5) Audi F1 Team R26 on track during the F1 Grand Prix of Austria at Red Bull Ring on June 28, 2026 in Spielberg, Austria. (Photo by Alastair Staley/LAT Images)SPIELBERG, AUSTRIA – JUNE 28: Nico Hulkenberg of Germany driving the (27) Audi F1 Team R26 on track during the F1 Grand Prix of Austria at Red Bull Ring on June 28, 2026 in Spielberg, Austria. (Photo by Clive Rose/Getty Images)2026 Austrian Grand Prix – Sunday2026 Austrian Grand Prix – SundaySPIELBERG, AUSTRIA – JUNE 28: Gabriel Bortoleto of Brazil driving the (5) Audi F1 Team R26 makes a pitstop during the F1 Grand Prix of Austria at Red Bull Ring on June 28, 2026 in Spielberg, Austria. (Photo by Steven Tee/LAT Images)SPIELBERG, AUSTRIA – JUNE 28: Nico Hulkenberg of Germany driving the (27) Audi F1 Team R26 on track during the F1 Grand Prix of Austria at Red Bull Ring on June 28, 2026 in Spielberg, Austria. (Photo by Guido De Bortoli/LAT Images)SPIELBERG, AUSTRIA – JUNE 28: Nico Hulkenberg of Germany driving the (27) Audi F1 Team R26 on track during the F1 Grand Prix of Austria at Red Bull Ring on June 28, 2026 in Spielberg, Austria. (Photo by Mark Thompson/Getty Images)2026 Austrian Grand Prix – Sunday2026 Austrian Grand Prix – SundaySPIELBERG, AUSTRIA – JUNE 28: Esteban Ocon of France driving the (31) Haas F1 VF-26 Ferrari leads Nico Hulkenberg of Germany driving the (27) Audi F1 Team R26 on track during the F1 Grand Prix of Austria at Red Bull Ring on June 28, 2026 in Spielberg, Austria. (Photo by Sam Bagnall/Sutton Images)SPIELBERG, AUSTRIA – JUNE 28: Gabriel Bortoleto of Brazil driving the (5) Audi F1 Team R26 on track during the F1 Grand Prix of Austria at Red Bull Ring on June 28, 2026 in Spielberg, Austria. (Photo by Andy Hone/LAT Images)SPIELBERG, AUSTRIA – JUNE 28: Nico Hulkenberg of Germany driving the (27) Audi F1 Team R26 on track during the F1 Grand Prix of Austria at Red Bull Ring on June 28, 2026 in Spielberg, Austria. (Photo by Rudy Carezzevoli/Getty Images)2026 Austrian Grand Prix – SundaySPIELBERG, AUSTRIA – JUNE 28: Nico Hulkenberg of Germany driving the (27) Audi F1 Team R26 leads Lando Norris of Great Britain driving the (1) McLaren MCL40 Mercedes on track during the F1 Grand Prix of Austria at Red Bull Ring on June 28, 2026 in Spielberg, Austria. (Photo by Clive Mason/Getty Images)SPIELBERG, AUSTRIA – JUNE 28: Nico Hulkenberg of Germany driving the (27) Audi F1 Team R26 on track during the F1 Grand Prix of Austria at Red Bull Ring on June 28, 2026 in Spielberg, Austria. (Photo by Guido De Bortoli/LAT Images)SPIELBERG, AUSTRIA – JUNE 28: Nico Hulkenberg of Germany driving the (27) Audi F1 Team R26 leads Esteban Ocon of France driving the (31) Haas F1 VF-26 Ferrari on track during the F1 Grand Prix of Austria at Red Bull Ring on June 28, 2026 in Spielberg, Austria. (Photo by Manuel Eletto/LAT Images)SPIELBERG, AUSTRIA – JUNE 28: Gabriel Bortoleto of Brazil driving the (5) Audi F1 Team R26 makes a pitstop during the F1 Grand Prix of Austria at Red Bull Ring on June 28, 2026 in Spielberg, Austria. (Photo by Peter Fox/Getty Images)2026 Austrian Grand Prix – Sunday2026 Austrian Grand Prix – Sunday
