Photo: Audi
In what surely came as a shock for most people, Audi announced today that it will be terminating its FIA WEC (World Endurance Championship), including the 24 Hours of Le Mans at the end of the 2016 season.
After securing 13 wins in 18 races at Le Mans since the team's debut in 1999, Audi is putting an end to its illustrious career in 2016 by leaving the competition. The decision comes after two years in a row in which the Ingolstadt team only managed to finish third, behind rivals from Porsche and Toyota.
But don't be fooled into thinking that fear of defeat is what made Audi cut its ties with endurance racing. No, it's actually something that started a little over a year ago. Yes, it's the fallout of the Dieselgate scandal that continues to make itself felt even after all this time.
While it didn't take the bulk of the mediatic flak, the Audi brand was and still is heavily affected by everything that followed the outbreak of the scandal. Audi boss Ruper Stadler motivates the decision using finance as an excuse, but that's not entirely true.
Audi's endurance program was built around the efficiency and performance of the TDI engines. With diesel now a leper nobody wants to have anything to do with - especially the brands inside the Volkswagen group - Audi was left with a hard choice. It could either invest in a new powertrain (too expensive) or quit these competitions altogether, since continuing with the TDI engines after all that went on was out of the question.
Audi, however, will continue its ties with motorsport, and we don't just mean its commitment in the DTM, the German touring championship where it's involved in a head-to-head battle with its two most fierce rivals: BMW and Mercedes-Benz. Starting next year, Audi will also enter the all-electric Formula E series with a factory-backed team.
This move only comes to support the decision made by Volkswagen and Audi alike concerning their production vehicles. With the brands firmly set - at least on a declarative level, for now - on the road to electrification, taking the fight to this battlefield seems like the next logical step. Success here will quickly establish Audi as a respectable electric vehicle manufacturer, and with the knowledge and manpower behind the brand, there's no doubt the Germans can do it relatively quickly.
“We’re going to contest the race for the future on electric power,” says Stadler. “As our production cars are becoming increasingly electric, our motorsport cars, as Audi’s technological spearheads, have to even more so.” Well, with more and more of the big names getting involved, Formula E is becoming more and more interesting by the minute. Formula One is allowed to be slightly scared.
But don't be fooled into thinking that fear of defeat is what made Audi cut its ties with endurance racing. No, it's actually something that started a little over a year ago. Yes, it's the fallout of the Dieselgate scandal that continues to make itself felt even after all this time.
While it didn't take the bulk of the mediatic flak, the Audi brand was and still is heavily affected by everything that followed the outbreak of the scandal. Audi boss Ruper Stadler motivates the decision using finance as an excuse, but that's not entirely true.
Audi's endurance program was built around the efficiency and performance of the TDI engines. With diesel now a leper nobody wants to have anything to do with - especially the brands inside the Volkswagen group - Audi was left with a hard choice. It could either invest in a new powertrain (too expensive) or quit these competitions altogether, since continuing with the TDI engines after all that went on was out of the question.
Audi, however, will continue its ties with motorsport, and we don't just mean its commitment in the DTM, the German touring championship where it's involved in a head-to-head battle with its two most fierce rivals: BMW and Mercedes-Benz. Starting next year, Audi will also enter the all-electric Formula E series with a factory-backed team.
This move only comes to support the decision made by Volkswagen and Audi alike concerning their production vehicles. With the brands firmly set - at least on a declarative level, for now - on the road to electrification, taking the fight to this battlefield seems like the next logical step. Success here will quickly establish Audi as a respectable electric vehicle manufacturer, and with the knowledge and manpower behind the brand, there's no doubt the Germans can do it relatively quickly.
“We’re going to contest the race for the future on electric power,” says Stadler. “As our production cars are becoming increasingly electric, our motorsport cars, as Audi’s technological spearheads, have to even more so.” Well, with more and more of the big names getting involved, Formula E is becoming more and more interesting by the minute. Formula One is allowed to be slightly scared.
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