Stake appoints former Mercedes man as Programme Director

Because it continues to morph into Audi F1, Stake is bolstering its administration staff with the appointment of Stefan Strahnz, who joins from Mercedes, to the newly created place of Programme Director.

Becoming a member of on October 1st, 2024, Strahnz will report on to CEO, Andreas Seidl, bringing a wealth of operational and organisational growth and management abilities because the staff dramatically ramps up its development within the run-up to Audi’s entry into the game in 2026.

Strahnz brings to the desk greater than 20 years’ expertise in F1, during which he labored for Toyota, BAR, Renault and Lotus, and loved an unimaginable stage of success as a part of the Mercedes staff, for which he labored for almost 13 years.

On this time, he held varied engineering roles, earlier than transferring into technical administration and management positions, ultimately transitioning to operational and organisational technique growth and implementation.

In these roles, Strahnz specialised in growing, simplifying and driving the supply of complicated and time-critical programmes, buying essential expertise that will likely be put to good use as Sauber undergoes its transformation into the Audi manufacturing unit staff.

“I’m delighted to welcome Stefan to the staff,” mentioned Andreas Seidl, “and I’m positive that he’ll convey an unimaginable quantity of expertise from his earlier roles, during which he received a number of races and championships, to additional complement and strengthen our management staff.

“Along with his distinctive expertise, Stefan will play a significant position in driving the staff’s total effectiveness and put together us on our journey to full finance regulation optimisation as we change into the Audi F1 manufacturing unit staff. Working carefully with myself, the administration staff and all our increasing technical, operational and finance departments, Stefan’s major mission is to ship totally streamlined and optimised F1 automobile programmes, from idea by means of to trace introduction.”

“I’m immensely proud and excited to hitch the proficient folks at Sauber Motorsport on our thrilling journey to change into the Audi F1 manufacturing unit staff in 2026,” added Strahnz. “I’ve skilled the same journey in my earlier roles, and I will likely be making use of all my learnings and vitality into this new and difficult programme to develop the required instruments, processes and tradition for sustainable long-term on- and off-track success.

“It’s a true privilege to hitch such an iconic model as Audi with all its earlier expertise and motorsport achievements. I stay up for taking a management position in our formidable targets to win championships in F1.”