With the EKS team, Audi’s future in the World Rallycross Championship is less guaranteed. Audi has been supporting EKS and its driver-owner Mattias Ekstrm with the help of two Audi S1 EKS RX race cars (seen below), but it’s believed that Audi is currently reviewing its future ties to this sector. Audi stated that the possibility of an electric Rallycross class could influence that choice, similar to parent firm Volkswagen.
The Volkswagen Group’s decision to no longer promote its diesel engine technology in a motorsport setting in the wake of its diesel pollution manipulation crisis is also connected to Audi’s decision to cease its involvement in LMP1 WEC racing.
Additionally, it comes in response to the chairman of Volkswagen, Matthias Mller, who decided to decrease the use of diesel engines overall in favor of petrol-electric hybrid and all-electric systems.
Audi’s WEC competitors have recently used a diesel-electric hybrid system that is unrelated to the engineering used in the company’s road vehicles.
According to a VW Group insider, “one of the attractions of the two-brand LMP1 approach was their different driveline designs.” “Transferring technology to our road cars would be constrained by bringing both Audi and Porsche to a single driveline idea.
The implementation of new driveline specifications is another obstacle that works against Audi’s continued participation in LMP1. From 2018, manufacturers competing in the premier class of the WEC will be required to adhere to a 10 megajoule rule. This will necessitate a significant revision of the existing Audi R18 e-tron quattro’s turbocharged 3.7-liter V6 diesel engine and electric motor application, including the adoption of a second kinetic energy recuperation system.
The Volkswagen Group implemented cost-cutting measures to its motorsport program prior to the start of the 2016 World Endurance Championship, which caused Audi and Porsche to reduce their attendance at the Le Mans 24 hours this year and run two-car teams instead of their respective three-car programmes from previous years.
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How did Audi Le Mans fare?
In the 2023 season, Audi will return to Le Mans and sports prototype racing with an electric sports car. The Audi R18’s successor is already beginning to take shape.
As the managing director of Audi Sport GmbH and the company responsible for motorsport, Julius Seebach adds, “The new LMDh category fits nicely with our new set-up in motorsport.
The rules enable us to enter fascinating race cars in important events all around the world. In addition, we are utilizing partner strategy synergies inside the Volkswagen Group.
In close collaboration with the sibling firm of the two brands, Porsche, the Audi R18’s replacement is being created. “The cooperation of the brands in the creation of road vehicles is a key strength of the Volkswagen Group, according to Seebach. “We are now implementing this tested methodology in motorsport. However, the new sports prototype will be every bit an authentic Audi as the recently released Audi RS e-tron GT, which was also built on a platform shared with Porsche.
At Audi Sport, the groundbreaking SUV for the Dakar Rally is being developed concurrently with the sports prototype for the new LMDh category. “Since there are only a little under eight months until our first participation in the Dakar Rally in January 2022, the Dakar team is undoubtedly under more time pressure, according to Andreas Roos, who is in charge of all factory motorsport commitments at Audi Sport. “However, we also want to be completely prepared for our return at Le Mans. Because of this, we are giving both projects top attention while running them concurrently.
In the meanwhile, all fundamental idea decisions have been decided. “We have agreed on an engine concept and a chassis partner. We are now defining the appearance that will delight our fans with our colleagues from Audi Design, adds Andreas Roos. “We intend to start rolling out the first prototype in the first quarter of 2019 and have it on wheels by early 2020. In 2022, a rigorous testing procedure will start. In January 2023, the Daytona 24 Hours (USA) will host the inaugural race.
The rules, which have been simplified for optimal cost effectiveness, also attract customer teams in Audi’s new sports prototype. “According to Andreas Roos, we are carrying on our early sports prototypes’ idea with the LMDh project. “With 63 victories across 80 races from 2000 to 2006, the Audi R8 was not only the most successful prototype of its time, but it was also simple for the teams to use and incredibly successful in their hands. This is also the foundation of our new sports prototype’s electrification. In addition to factory entries, our objective is to start the car off in the hands of qualified customer teams. We are now thoroughly analyzing how this will function inside.
For many teams, the opportunity to compete with an Audi for overall victories and championship titles at the Le Mans 24 Hours, the Daytona 24 Hours, the World Endurance Championship (WEC), and the IMSA series is appealing. The new LMDh race car is already generating a lot of curiosity.
The Le Mans 24 Hours is the world’s most prestigious endurance event, and Audi has won it 13 times and retains the distance record. In 2004 and 2005, Audi customer teams won the overall race at Le Mans.
Audi stopped competing in Le Mans, why?
Internet enthusiasts of motorsports, big news. The factory-backed squad for Audi will compete in Formula E for the final time in 2021. To concentrate on the Dakar Rally, which it will compete in in 2022 with a “novel prototype range-extended electric vehicle.
Additionally, Julius Seebach, the managing director of Audi Sport, claims that the business is “assiduously preparing to compete in the new sports prototype category LMDh, which has the Daytona and Le Mans 24 Hour races as its marquee events.
Much to be explained there. Starting with Dakar. Cross-country rallying, according to Audi, “will be the focal point of the factory motorsport commitment in the future, and its entry in 2022 will take the form of a range-extender EV that marries a high-voltage battery with a “highly-efficient TFSI engine to keep it charged.
Le Mans cars constructed in accordance with the “LMDh” standards will be allowed to compete in the WEC and IMSA Sports Car Championship starting in 2023. The hybrid technology for the LMP2-based vehicles will be standard, however producers will be need to provide their own bodywork and engines. With a Balance of Performance (BoP) system to maintain fairness, the new Le Mans “hypercars” (like Toyota’s GR Super Sport) will be directly competed with in the WEC.
When did Audi leave the Le Mans race?
Following a recent evaluation of its motorsport initiatives, Audi will stop participating in Formula E in 2019.
It will adjust its long-term plan to include both an electric Dakar Rally entry starting in 2022 and a return to elite sportscar racing with a Le Mans Daytona hybrid (LMDh) car starting in 2023.
But in the championship for electric single-seaters, the forthcoming 2021 FE season will be its last.
Even though Audi’s factory team will stop competing in Formula E, Envision Virgin Racing, who will finish the Gen2 era with hardware provided by Audi, is still slated to represent Audi on the grid in 2021/22.
But it is clear that having two brands in the series did not play a major or deciding role in Audi’s decision to leave.
The choice is thought to have been made before the start of this year and announced on Monday at the Valencia test days.
“The Formula E clear road map is known to us. However, it was significantly more acceptable to be in other directions for the Audi AG roadmap:: Anthony McNish
Audi had said it was doing a thorough analysis of its next motorsport campaigns when it announced its retirement from the DTM in April.
Allan McNish, team president, said he recognized why Audi was leaving FE and was pleased of what the team had accomplished.
“It has made it possible for us to transition from an internal combustion to an electric industry.
“We raced in season four before the E-tron was ever publicly released to the media on the market, so in that regard, it served as groundwork for the electrification strategy, which is now in place and we have a clear roadmap in terms of the BEV [battery electric vehicle] vehicles coming through.
“We are getting ready for the upcoming technological advancement, which will affect where we are.
Is Audi coming back to Le Mans?
Audi declared two years ago that it would participate in the LMDh regulations and return to Le Mans in 2023. Their program has apparently been put on hold for several months, only a little over a year before the first races in which their new car would have been allowed to compete.
The delay is now being blamed to problems with the supply chain, while Porsche, a fellow Volkswagen brand, has been able to launch a similar program at the same time with the same chassis-building partner. If the initiative is allowed to continue, the lengthy break will leave Audi far behind its corporate friends in track testing before the 2023 season, which may jeopardize a Daytona debut. Additionally, it makes it much more difficult to sign up clients in North America, where the program’s intended operation takes up half of the continent.
From 1999 through 2016, Audi competed at Le Mans, winning 13 races. Between Ferrari’s nine and Porsche’s 19 all-time records, that number is sufficient to place them second. All three were expected to participate in the 24 hour classic again in 2023 prior to this break.
Porsche, Acura, BMW, Cadillac, and Alpine have all committed to the LMDh rulebook in light of Audi’s impending exit from sports car racing, and all but Alpine are still scheduled to make their debuts in 2023. Le Mans will feature just Porsche, Cadillac, and Alpine cars, while Toyota, Peugeot, and Ferrari will also enter vehicles that adhere to the same LMH ruleset. Another Volkswagen-owned company, Lamborghini, is said to be weeks away from announcing or abandoning a potential LMDh program of their own.
The LMH and LMDh cars will race in the same classes in both Europe (as Hypercar) and the United States (as GTP) starting in 2023, despite the distinct regulation sets. Notably, only Cadillac and Porsche have started to tease their vehicles for 2023.
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Why did Porsche and Audi quit LMP1?
The impending departure of Audi from its long-held position atop the world of sports car racing was both stunning and inevitable. The justification for the withdrawal was brutally Germanic: it was just a smart business decision. Even if it had been inevitable, the departure of Audi from the WEC is comparable to that of McLaren from Formula 1, Ford from NASCAR, or Ganassi from IndyCar. There is no doubt that this is a significant thing.
The same efficiency of a machine Audi’s board of directors and accounting department used the 1999 24 Hours of Le Mans to forecast the company’s future participation in the French endurance race. With a rumored annual investment of $500 million to take into account, the brand’s financials appeared to stop adding up.
When VW’s Dieselgate scandal first surfaced on September 18, 2015, the first axe began its hushed, steady descent. Although Volkswagen Audi Group (VAG) was unaware of the exact amount of the fine at the time, it was aware that eventually its financial position would suffer greatly. Tuesday marked its actual arrival.
Less than 24 hours after the revelation of a $15 billion repurchase settlement in North America alone, the decision to delete one of VAG’s two most costly racing projects from the books on Wednesday was a foregone conclusion. Porsche’s gasoline-powered Le Mans effort, which is reported to require an annual investment of half a billion dollars, was left unaffected.
Insiders told me shortly after the Dieselgate scandal surfaced that every racing program at VAG was directed to discontinue all activities that weren’t profitable or enhancing the brand of the company. Following two lopsided defeats at Le Mans by sister brand Porsche (along with a protracted loss against Porsche’s 919 Hybrid in the FIA World Endurance Championship), Audi Sport’s LMP1 program failed to achieve either of VAG’s self-imposed sustainability criteria.
In terms of engineering, Porsche (and to a lesser extent Toyota) also made it difficult to deny that the age of Audi’s turbodiesel dominance had come to a natural end.
The presence of the light-weight 919 and its hardly perceptible V4 turbo made the V6 in the Audi an obvious performance liability. While the Porsche’s small drivetrain enables the 919 to turn and brake with startling fluiditya it’s marvel of chassis balance perfectionthe high engine weight of the R18 has put Audi’s design team in an undesirable situation. Every choice taken with the R18 chassis since 2015 has required overcoming the kinematic nightmare in the engine bay, like a huge boulder slung to its back.
In an effort to reclaim Audi’s Le Mans glory, this year’s R18the most extreme LMP1 vehicle ever builttook weight reduction to insane heights. It has also succeeded in making the 919 and Toyota TS050 look subdued based solely on aesthetics.
To close the growing gap with its competitors, the wild, Formula 1-inspired high nose, size-zero packaging at the front of the chassis, and innovative aerodynamics were used. Into a great cost, Audi poured everything it had at the redesigned turbodiesel R18, but after seven WEC rounds, Porsche has won five races, while Toyota and Audi have split the wins evenly.
Despite all of the innovation and effort, the new R18 has been unable to surpass its VAG stablemate.
A new, lean, non-diesel solution would be necessary to reverse the trend, and along with it, the R18’s entire design philosophy would also need to change. Audi Sport would need to spend three times what the most recent R18 cost VAG in order to reclaim its victory at Le Mans. Audi Sport’s turbodiesel downturn occurred at the worst possible time and put an end to the program due to the financial pressure caused by Dieselgate and the high cost of the 2016 model.
600 people, including Audi workers, subcontractors, and outside vendors, are expected to be impacted by the cancellation of the Le Mans project, according to a friend inside the team.
He said, “It’s like losing a friend.” The dynamics of many people’s families and lives will shift as a result.
Audi Sport will give the all-electric FIA Formula E open-wheel championship its entire attention once the Le Mans program concludes at the end of November. Only a small fraction of the enormous engineering and mechanical expertise stored within Audi’s Le Mans program is expected to be redeployed to the new endeavor because to the (mostly) standardized nature of Formula E.
Formula E has failed to build a fan base, garner significant TV ratings, and achieve financial success, but with Audithe titans of endurance racing and cutting-edge technology joining, the series has finally begun to establish credibility.
Audi has the potential to be a game-changing competitor in Formula E, a series that has mostly been based on hype. Audi could assist Formula E in connecting with its target audience in novel and meaningful ways if it applied the pattern it has used to promote sport-meets-technology events since 1999 to attract fans to Le Mans.
The FIA World Endurance Championship, which serves as the Le Mans program’s primary home, is set to undergo its most difficult stress test, aside from the 600+ individuals who are in for big changes at Audi Sport. When Peugeot abandoned its Le Mans campaign just before the 2012 season began, the WEC was similarly shocked, but it had the consoling support of Audi and the forthcoming Toyota program.
Audi’s departure is unlike anything the series experienced when Peugeot packed up and left, despite superficial parallels. Yes, the French manufacturer played a significant role in the championship, but it only lasted for five years and was never accused of investing as much money in the sport as Audi did. Le Mans only lost its second-best customer with Peugeot. The 24 Hour and the WEC series are gazing into the dark abyss they have long dreaded with Audi.
How many TV, print, radio, and online commercials does Audi buy annually to support its Le Mans program and the WEC campaign? How many trackside banners, servers, valets, hosts, hospitality suites, catered dinners, and security personnel has Audi paid for at each race? At each round, how many hotels, rental cars, and flights were reserved? How much did such things contribute to the local economies? How many travel planners, travel engineers, travel mechanics, truck drivers, marketing and PR workers, and support staff currently depend on Audi to support their families? How many formerly employed drivers are now serving as brand ambassadors?
How much money does Audi directly invest in the 24 Hours of Le Mans and the WEC through marketing rights, special promotions, renting out space for hospitality compounds and trackside support buses, using its cars as the sole pace car supplier, installing in-car cameras in the R18s, using the Le Mans and WEC logos, etc.?
The richest money circulation system in sports car racing will stop beating after 18 interwoven years. Le Mans will have a significant financial gap when the WEC’s top spender departs.
Without Audi, there are legitimate worries about the WEC’s short- and long-term future. How many manufacturers are actually willing to match or exceed $500,000,000 each year to play for the win, using Porsche’s 919 as the barometer?
There is no assurance that an Audi replacement will arise given the high entry cost and the three to five years required to create a new Le Mans prototype into a contender. The discourse would take on a completely different tone if there was a competitor in the distance, and until that company is found or adjustments are made to reduce expenses, the effects of Audi’s departure will be felt strongly by the sport.
Le Mans and the WEC have a difficult winter ahead of them after losing their cash cow and star attraction to Formula E.