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 expertise 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, by which he labored for Toyota, BAR, Renault and Lotus, and loved an unbelievable stage of success as a part of the Mercedes staff, for which he labored for practically 13 years.

On this time, he held varied engineering roles, earlier than shifting into technical administration and management positions, finally 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 probably 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,“ stated Andreas Seidl, „and I’m certain that he’ll carry an unbelievable quantity of expertise from his earlier roles, by which he received a number of races and championships, to additional complement and strengthen our management staff.

„Together with his distinctive expertise, Stefan will play an important position in driving the staff’s total effectiveness and put together us on our journey to full finance regulation optimisation as we grow to be the Audi F1 manufacturing unit staff. Working intently with myself, the administration staff and all our increasing technical, operational and finance departments, Stefan’s foremost mission is to ship absolutely streamlined and optimised F1 automobile programmes, from idea via to trace introduction.“

„I’m immensely proud and excited to affix the proficient individuals at Sauber Motorsport on our thrilling journey to grow to be the Audi F1 manufacturing unit staff in 2026,“ added Strahnz. „I’ve skilled an analogous journey in my earlier roles, and I will probably be making use of all my learnings and power 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 affix such an iconic model as Audi with all its earlier expertise and motorsport achievements. I stay up for taking a management position in our bold targets to win championships in F1.“