Swiss motorsport company Sauber has chosen Oxfordshire for its new technical centre as it gears up to become Audi’s Formula 1 works team from 2026. Sauber selected Bicester Motion as a location that would put it right at the heart of the area known as Motorsport Valley.
This is Sauber’s first move into the UK, and Mattia Binotto, Audi F1 Project's COO & CTO, says they targeted the area for having ‘one of the world’s most dynamic motorsport ecosystems,’ and because it is ‘home to the world’s largest motorsport expertise and talent pool,’ adding that its new facility will allow it to tap into an incredible knowledge resource and cultivate strong collaborations with top experts.
Sauber Motorsport will use its Bicester centre to enhance and expand its team’s technical capabilities while working closely with its operational hubs in Switzerland and Germany. The 444-acre Bicester Motion site is home to pioneering automotive and aviation companies, as well as Motorsport UK, the industry’s governing body. Motorsport Valley extends across the county from the Thames Valley area to the West Midlands and is home to the majority of the UK’s motorsport companies and engineers.
Oxfordshire has a long track record in F1 motorsports, having been home over the years to the pioneering Williams team and Prodrive, along with Lotus, Mercedes and Renault at various times. The county is also growing fast in Formula E, the motorsport championship that uses only electric cars, and is a testbed area for electrification and new technologies. Formula E companies with an Oxfordshire base include Jaguar TCS Racing, Mahindra Racing, Andretti Autosport, and NIO.
Sauber’s announcement comes soon after the UK government unveiled its Modern Industrial Strategy, in which the automotive industry and advanced manufacturing are both named as priority sectors. The government has committed up to £4.3 billion in funding for the advanced manufacturing sector, including up to £2.8 billion in research and development funding programmes over the next five years. It has also announced a new offer for automotive investors, leveraging £2 billion in government funding to step up its support in the transition to net zero. The ‘Driving Research and Investment in Vehicle Electrification’ (DRIVE35) initiative supports the latest R&D and is intended to enable a holistic transition to next-generation electric vehicle technologies.
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