Allan McNish endured a nightmare first weekend in his new senior role in Formula 1 as Audi’s 2026 reliability crisis deepened in Miami.
The former Toyota driver and Le Mans winner is now overseeing trackside operations following Jonathan Wheatley’s departure, working alongside Mattia Binotto as Audi restructures its F1 operation.
But his debut quickly descended into chaos.
Nico Hulkenberg suffered a fiery fluid leak before the sprint, then retiring from Sunday’s race with overheating issues. Gabriel Bortoleto was disqualified from the sprint over intake pressure irregularities and later his brakes caught fire in qualifying, in a weekend plagued by technical and operational problems.
McNish admitted the weekend exposed the scale of the task ahead.
"If he had started from a normal grid position, he probably would have scored points," he said of Bortoleto.
"The same applies to Nico in a clean race."
The 56-year-old Scot insisted the underlying pace is more encouraging than the results suggest. "The fact that we were able to keep up well with a relatively small package compared to the others shows that the raw speed is there," McNish said.
But he conceded the operational and reliability side remains far from acceptable.
"Of course, we don’t want something like that to happen," he said.
"Everyone is still in a learning phase. It’s not unexpected that we don’t get everything perfect right from the start."
McNish also revealed he spent much of the weekend simply trying to understand the organisation from the inside.
"There was a lot to learn," he admitted. "I first had to understand how the individual departments work and how they are interconnected.
"I now have a clearer picture."
Former F1 driver Timo Glock was far more blunt.
"Hulkenberg can’t be happy about this, but neither can Audi with their performance this weekend and so many technical problems," he told Sky Deutschland.
"Since the beginning of the year, there have already been three race starts where a car was missing due to technical issues. They need to sit down and do their homework."
"They can’t afford this."
Hulkenberg himself tried to stay positive despite remaining pointless so far in 2026.
"Overall, it was a character-building weekend for us," he admitted. "We had a lot to deal with, still a lot to do, but also some positives."
"I think our pace isn’t too bad."
"But we need to translate that into action, put it on the track, see the flag, and get the cars through. We’ll keep at it, keep our heads up, and won’t let this get us down."