The German team added its third consecutive race without points in Florida, Hülkenberg could not start the sprint due to a fire and retired from the Grand Prix due to a transmission problem. Bortoleto was disqualified in the sprint and fought back to 12th place in the race.
Audi added in Miami its third consecutive round without scoring points. The German team, which debuted as a power unit manufacturer in 2026, suffered a series of technical problems in Florida that evidence the long road ahead: "I don't think we had a single problem that was similar," declared Gabriel Bortoleto at the end of the weekend.
The Brazilian was one of those affected, along with Nico Hülkenberg he had qualified in encouraging 11th and 12th positions for the sprint race, but the German could not even take the start, his car caught fire due to a leak. Bortoleto finished 11th, but was subsequently disqualified due to a spike in air intake pressure.
The ordeal continued in qualifying for the Grand Prix, Audi changed both gearboxes and Hülkenberg's power unit, the veteran achieved 11th place, while a brake problem relegated Bortoleto to last position on the grid (22nd). The German's race lasted barely seven laps, he collided with Carlos Sainz at turn 1 and then suffered an unspecified "technical problem" that forced him to retire. For his part, Bortoleto fought back to 12th place, 13 seconds away from the points.
"Things like that are going to happen, we are a new engine manufacturer and we only have two cars. There are teams that are running eight cars with a power unit, imagine the amount of learning you can get from having that number of cars. It's just Nico and me, and sometimes one of us doesn't finish the race, so we just need to be patient," explained Bortoleto, who focused on the comparative disadvantage with other manufacturers.
Allan McNish, competition director, wanted to play down the situation. Asked if the accumulation of problems was worrying, the Scot replied: "Oh, not at all, it's not, but obviously that's not what we need. We need reliability and then we can also start to develop in other areas. The frustrating part is not having two cars at the start and especially with the underlying performance we had."
Hülkenberg's problem in the sprint was a leak that the team mistakenly believed they had solved, in the main race the transmission was "overheating," according to McNish, and this was the third time this year that an Audi could not start a race, after the problems that left Hülkenberg out in Australia and Bortoleto in China.
McNish recalled that Audi is not the only manufacturer with difficulties: "If you look, many are having some problems, it doesn't just fall on us," he stated, but the data is forceful: Audi is last in race mileage this season, having completed 331 of 524 possible laps.
Hope lies in the ADUO program, manufacturers that are between 2% and 4% below the power of the best engine will be able to introduce one upgrade. Those that are more than 4% below, two. The first evaluation period ends after Canada, Audi trusts that this will allow them to take a step forward.
