Mattia Binotto reportedly rejected an offer to become team boss at Audi’s new works Formula 1 project.
Former McLaren boss Andreas Seidl is now the CEO at Sauber - which will transition to the works Audi outfit in F1 by 2026.
But rumours suggest Italian Binotto, the ousted Ferrari team boss, was given a tour of Audi’s Neuberg headquarters recently.
And according to Business F1 magazine, he was not impressed.
"He was somewhat disappointed by what he saw at Audi," the Italian newspaper Corriere dello Sport also reports.
"So much so that in some private messages he sensationally said that some of the characters he met in that meeting were ’clowns’."