Jonathan Wheatley left Red Bull last year, where he officiated as a sports director. He is now director of Sauber F1, and he gets used to life in Switzerland, as well as a very different team. This forces him to compose with new perspectives, and to deal with different issues.
“One is in Switzerland, the other at Milton Keynes” Did he joke when asked what were the biggest differences between Red Bull and Sauber during an episode of the Podcast in Formula 1, Beyond the Grid. “It’s very, very different.”
“It reminds me of my Passage from Renault F1 to Red Bull in 2006. There is a great spirit, but structures defined on how a race team works when it becomes a large team. The way of thinking of a large team compared to a smaller team, and the overall strategy for the next few years, are very, very different prospects.”
“What I would say is that the biggest problem we face is that the workforce increases and that the office space does not increase. So there are a lot of people piled up in small spaces at the moment, but an expansion plan is in progress.
“In fact, I am moving and a plan is in place. I think that the atmosphere and the appearance of a campus will be an excellent message for the team. It will show the team that it is happening and that we are on the right track.”
Wheatley now wants to recruit to successfully advance Sauber, and soon Audi. According to him, it is not only an objective of number of employees, but also a culture among the recruited people.
“I believe that a team is greater than the number of its members. I sincerely believe that if the team has the right mental attitude, if there is the right energy, if the culture is correct, you can do incredible things and you can surpass performance. I loved working in these teams.”
“I have worked in teams where it is absolutely every day and where we are at Sauber, we have to make sure that this happens in all the departments, every day. Everyone clashes with a single team. This is why these transformations are not done in six or eight months. It takes years for it to happen.”
