The German automaker has been making progress with its F1 intentions and recently made a public announcement saying that a final approval to proceed would come when F1’s new engine regulations for 2026 were finalized.
When asked about how far along the company is in its preparations by citizens of Wolfsburg, Germany, where the company is headquartered, VW CEO Herbert Diess responded in a YouTube video posted on Monday.
Speaking candidly about F1, Diess noted that there was a chance to make a move that would not happen again for some time given the boom that grand prix racing was experiencing in important areas like the USA and the prospects that a whole new regulations set would present in 2026.
He noted that “Formula 1 is developing tremendously nicely across the board.” “Due to their marketing efforts and Netflix, Formula 1 has seen a big increase in popularity in the United States as well. Asia is expanding substantially, particularly with regard to youthful consumer groups. When comparing major sporting events throughout the world, Formula 1 is the only competition that actually matters and is getting more and more distinct.
“If you participate in motorsports, you should focus on Formula 1 since it has the biggest influence. In addition, you cannot enter Formula 1 unless a technological window opens, which requires a rule change to allow entry: everyone must restart from the same position.
As Markus Duesman, the chairman of Audi and a former head of powertrains for BMW F1, frequently reminds me, “On a medium-sized racing course, you normally make up one second per season just by optimizing minutiae.
However, you can’t make up for it when you join a new squad; it usually takes five to ten years to be among the front-runners. In other words, you can only join if there is a significant regulation change.
That is already happening, and it will also happen by 2026, when engines will be considerably more electric, including using synthetic fuels. That indicates that you require the development of a new engine, which will take three to four years.
That means you can choose to participate in Formula 1 right now or not for the next ten years. And our two premium brands are giving it top priority because they believe it to be the right thing to do.
Porsche and Penske are presently preparing for an LMDh attack at Le Mans, while Audi has recently concentrated its factory efforts on the Dakar Rally.
Diess affirmed that Porsche and Audi had made a commitment to competing in Formula One independently rather than under the Volkswagen moniker.
Red Bull and Porsche have been tied together the most, with Diess confirming that Porsche’s intentions are more “concrete” than Audi’s, which has not yet chosen a partner.
VW won’t be involved, he declared. “The brand won’t participate since it doesn’t fit.”
Diess claimed that a move to F1 was a no-brainer given that the Porsche and Audi brands had high long-term sales growth goals and that analysis had shown that the F1 programs could help the two automakers turn a profit.
“Porsche has to participate in motorsport because Porsche has to be the sportiest automobile brand in the world,” he stated. “And you come to the conclusion that if Porsche competes in motorsport, Formula 1 is the most effective course of action. You practically have to check that box.
Audi is a considerably weaker brand than Porsche, he continued. It can’t charge such a significant price premium. Due to the far bigger potential for the brand, Audi actually has a stronger argument for participating in Formula 1.
Then Audi will have a case where they say it makes sense. They are expanding into the higher categories, competing with Daimler. Additionally, Audi sends between four and five billion to Wolfsburg each year, and it will send even more with Formula 1 than without.
“At that point, your arguments simply run dry. You may object, “But I don’t believe in Formula 1,” but there are solid reasons to believe that the sport will continue to develop. Why put restrictions on them if that results in increased revenue?
Even though Diess believes that Porsche and Audi should enter the Formula One, he has acknowledged that not everyone on the VW Board shares his opinion at a time when the auto sector is undergoing change due to the transition to electric vehicles.
He stated, “The discussion on the Board was not unanimous. “We undoubtedly have other strategic interests. Although it may not always be motorsport, our cars must be technologically advanced in order for us to drive autonomously. To do this, we need the necessary software and car batteries. We don’t really need to focus on Formula 1, as we already have plenty to do.
“However, our premium brands claim that’s the most crucial lever to boost brand value and enable them to charge somewhat more for the cars. In the case of Audi, you can also use this to show the opposition that you have more advanced technology.
“For that reason, the Supervisory Board and the Board of Management have all voted in favor of this. Audi still needs to choose which constellation and team to work with. However, both have begun to create engines.
In This Article...
Why aren’t BMW and Audi in Formula 1?
All of the major exotic vehicle manufacturers have competed in F1 or, at the absolute least, provided engines for the sport throughout its history.
The F1 grid has formerly featured vehicles with the names Aston Martin, Maserati, Bugatti, Alfa Romeo, Porsche, Lamborghini, Lotus, Jaguar, and Mercedes Benz. You now have a real who’s who of the automotive industry, including the enduring Ferrari and contemporary automotive behemoths Honda, Renault, and Toyota.
Despite its long history and popularity, there are surprisingly few names from the real world of motorsport on the roster of teams competing in F1 today.
The only car brands you can actually buy are Ferrari, Mercedes, Renault, and, to a lesser extent, McLaren. The two Lotus teams who absurdly compete this year have no connection to the British sports car manufacturer of the same name (owned by Malaysia).
The concentration of ownership of these well-known names is one of the main issues. They used to be powerful, independent businesses, but today they are just branches on the conglomerate tree.
For instance, Fiat is the owner of Maserati, Alfa Romeo, Lancia, and Ferrari. Audi, Bugatti, Bentley, and Lamborghini are all under Porsche control at Volkswagen.
Where are Peugeot or BMW? Why are Japanese firms no longer in a position to compete? Why couldn’t one of the Porsche stable’s brands stand in for the group?
Audi has developed a solution. They have revealed their cards after years of tease teasers about an F1 effort.
Audi believes that F1 is unimportant. Audi’s director of racing, Dr. Wolfgang Ullrich, defends the harsh decision.
The road has no bearing on this. Audi has long participated in motorsports that our customers care about, like rallying and touring cars, which helped develop the quattro, FSI, and TFSI systems that are now included in our road cars.
This is the reason we rejected F1 in 1999. Instead, we made the decision to compete in the world’s biggest race. We chose Le Mans.
They are combative words. However, the argument has some merit given the number of passenger car manufacturers competing alongside Audi (11 in all) at Le Mans events.
That didn’t prevent Audi from planning an extravagant celebration in Singapore to coincide with the F1 race, though.
As brutal as Dr Ulrich’s assessment is, he gets the Ban Ki Moon award for diplomacy compared to the blunt assessment of F1 offered up by Porsche CEO Matthias Mueller who declared that it was “not interesting and “too expensive.”
Of course, the two erudite men omit to mention that F1 is an absurdly challenging sport to master.
Why risk it all to be an afterthought in a world that is so different from your own when you’re the big fish in Le Mans racing, as is the case with Audi, or when you have many series exclusively dedicated to your brand, as does Porsche?
You know you’re not in Kansas anymore when racing behemoths like Mercedes and Ferrari attend a class from an energy drink manufacturer.
That, though, is the appeal. F1 should be unpredictable and innovative; it shouldn’t only be about racing road cars.
That is not to claim that Formula One is a very inventive sport. The idea that F1 has significantly advanced the automotive industry is widespread, but it doesn’t hold up to thorough examination.
F1 is better at extending existing technologies than it is at inventing new ones, leaving aside traction control and monocoque construction. While improvements in this field certainly have an impact on the passenger market, they don’t often garner the same attention as high-profile innovations like airbags.
The Olympics wouldn’t exist if sport were exclusively about practical applications, though. It wouldn’t be fun to see Usain Bolt shatter world records; we’d rather to watch police officers take out criminals.
Although Audi would be a great addition, F1 is unique and different, and the sport will continue to exist without them. In addition, a number of well-known past participants are already lined up to participate in the 2014 engine upgrades, joining first-timers Volkswagen and General Motors.
F1 is still without a doubt the best series, even though the Le Mans 24-hour may be the world’s best auto race (although the people of Monaco may disagree).
Can Audi compete in Formula One?
Porsche and Audi will both compete in Formula 1, according to Herbert Diess, CEO of parent company Volkswagen Group.
Diess announced that the group’s Porsche and Audi brands will both participate in the sport during an online “Dialogue with Diess” question-and-answer session. He said, “You just run out of reasons [not to join F1].
The decision to enter F1 divided the Volkswagen Group board of directors, according to Diess, who also disclosed that the board ultimately decided to approve the move since it will generate more money than it will cost.
Why is Porsche not in Formula One?
Ferdinand Porsche created Grand Prix cars for Mercedes and Auto Union in the 1920s and 1930s, but the Porsche AG never felt comfortable in single-seater competition.
Due to permissive rules and promising lap times, the Porsche 718 RSK, a two-seat sports car, was entered in Formula Two races in the late 1950s. First, the 718 was modified by shifting the seat to the middle of the vehicle, and then actual open wheelers were constructed. The 1500 cc automobiles were somewhat successful. In 1961, the ex-F2 vehicles were promoted to Formula One, but Porsche’s outmoded design was uncompetitive. Dan Gurney won the 1962 French Grand Prix in a newly created, sleek, flat-eight-powered Porsche 804, giving Porsche its lone victory as a constructor in a championship race. He replicated the feat a week later in a non-championship race on Stuttgart’s Solitude in front of Porsche’s home fans. Porsche left Formula One at the end of the season because to hefty costs,[citation needed] despite having only recently acquired the Reutter facility. F1 was too far removed from road cars for Volkswagen and German suppliers to be interested in making a commitment. Up until 1964, privateers still entered the archaic Porsche 718 in Formula One.
Porsche returned to Formula One in 1983 after a nearly two-decade absence, providing water-cooled V6 turbo engines badged as TAG units for the McLaren Team. Porsche had been tremendously successful with turbocharged cars in the 1970s. The Porsche-typical flat engine was not an option due to its excessive width from an aerodynamic standpoint. A 90 V6 turbo engine was created since turbo power was the way to go in Formula One at the time. John Barnard, principal designer of McLaren, set extremely strict specifications for the TAG engine’s development. He made sure that the engine’s physical architecture matched the style of the car he was proposing. The engine was funded by TAG, which also held the naming rights, even though the engines were marked “manufactured by Porsche.” Porsche initially resisted putting their name on the engines out of concern for negative publicity if they failed. However, the “Made by Porsche” labels started to appear after a few races in the 1984 season when it became clear that the engines were the ones to have. Three driver titles (1984, 1985, and 1986) and two constructor championships (1984 and 1985) were won by TAG-Porsche-powered vehicles. Between 1984 and 1987, the engines propelled McLaren to 25 victories, with 19 going to World Champion Alain Prost in 1985 and 1986 and six going to World Champion Niki Lauda in 1984.
The TAG-Porsche engines, despite their enormous success, were never the most potent in Formula One since they had the capacity to withstand higher turbo boost like the competitor BMW, Renault, Ferrari, and Honda engines. Lauda, Prost, Keke Rosberg, and Stefan Johansson, the McLaren drivers who frequently competed with the engine, frequently urged Porsche to create a unique qualifying engine like their rivals. Mansour Ojjeh, the owner of Porsche and TAG, refused to build qualifying engines because of the added expense, claiming that the race engines had previously been shown to produce similar power and better fuel economy than all save the Hondas. Despite having less power, McLaren still managed to win 7 pole positions (6 for Prost and 1 for Rosberg) and 21 starts on the front row.
Porsche made a second engine supply appearance in F1 in 1991, but this time the consequences were disastrous: According to several reports, including one from McLaren designer Alan Jenkins, the engine was actually two combined TAG V6 engines used by McLaren from 1983 to 1987 without the turbochargers)[8], the Footwork Arrows cars powered by this overweight Porsche 3512 double-V6 that weighed 400 pounds (180 kg) failed to score a single point and even failed to qualify for more than half the races that year. Porsche hasn’t competed in Formula One since Footwork replaced the Porsche engines with Cosworth DFRs. In addition to having insufficient horsepower, the 3512 reportedly had serious oil starvation issues that frequently resulted in engine failure.
Porsche Chairman Matthias Mueller hinted about a potential Porsche comeback to Formula 1 during the 2010 Paris Motor Show. Mueller said specifically that one of Porsche or Audi would race in Le Mans, while the other would go to Formula 1. Audi’s head of motorsport Wolfgang Ulrich had previously said that the two “do not fit” in Formula 1. [9]
But on May 2, 2022, Volkswagen Group CEO Herbert Diess made the announcement that Porsche would return to the sport along with VW brand Audi. This followed months of rumors.
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