AUDI Revolut F1 Team chief commercial officer Stefano Battiston says its racing activities have boosted exposure for the brand holistically, which he hopes will lead to increased sales for the road car side of the business. 

Speaking in a workshop session titled The Business of Speed: Value Creation in Formula 1® – hosted by Castrol national sales manager Gary Macbeth – at last month’s Australian Automotive Dealer Association Convention and Expo, Mr Battiston said that the F1 team worked closely with Audi’s Ingolstadt headquarters to cultivate a brand. 

“The whole Audi F1 brand we’ve built very closely, obviously together with Audi’s headquarters back in Ingolstadt, and we as a team have taken on the new Audi design language – the ‘Radical Next’ – and introduced the new Audi (F1-specific) font, which has been rolled out within the team.”

Stefano Battiston, chief commercial officer of Audi Revolut F1® Team

In 2024, Audi announced a 100 per cent takeover of the Sauber F1 Team, with the factory-backed effort making its official debut in the sport at the start of this year. However, even during the brand’s short presence in the World Championship, Mr Battiston said it has been able to generate “emotion” around Audi.

“So I think what we already see is – and again I can only speak on the behalf of the F1 team and not of the Audi brand – but I think what we can see is the awareness of the brand, how we ignite the fire around the brand, how we build emotion around the brand. People can follow something, people can cheer towards something, can be on the journey with something.” 

While stressing that he does not speak for the wider Audi brand, Mr Battiston says that the dealers he has interacted with are seeing increased engagement from customers. 

“With the dealers I speak with they hear that people are engaging more with the brand, that they’re following the brand more, that they’re following the team … and they’re proud.”

Gary Macbeth, national sales manager at Castrol

“Again, it’s building a community and sense of belonging, which hopefully should translate into sales one day, because I think that the overall target is in the end to sell more cars.”

F1’s global audience has spiked in recent years, most notably due to the highly successful Drive to Survive Netflix series. According to the Formula 1 website, nearly 3.7 million people attended the first 11 rounds of the 2026 season.

Mr Battiston said the global platform of Formula 1 has helped the Audi brand reach new people, while also reflecting on the successes of its product launches during Grand Prix weekends. 

“It is great to see how F1 as a global platform just helps Audi to reach new people, more people than ever, and this also translates then in product launches and so on. The RS5 that we’ve launched in the F1 environment and Nuvolari that we’ve launched in the F1 environment were two very successful products for Audi.”

Footnote: Historically, motorsport has proven to be a potent aspect of Audi’s marketing repertoire.

During the 1980s and 1990s, Audi used its activities in the World Rally Championship, IMSA GT Championship, Trans-Am, and in Touring Car racing to market its Quattro all-wheel drive technology.

Audi also used endurance racing to showcase its TDI diesel powertrains from the mid-2000s to the mid-2010s, while its presence in the Formula e electric racing series was used as a tool to market its e-tron electric vehicles.