German cars domination is about to end soon as Audi is readying itself for a return to grand prix racing. Insiders from Audi and Volkswagen said that the German automaker is gearing-up to join the F1 and abandon the German Touring car championship (DTM) and the iconic LeMans Car racing in the favour of Formula One Racing.
Sources say that it will combine its WEC and DTM budgets and the Red Bull Sponsorship package for the Grand Prix racing. It is a showground where Audi has not performed since 1950, but now according to multiple sources, Audi will unleash all its power in the 2016 Formula One Championship.
Audi was about to enter the F1 in 2013 but aborted its plans to use the four cylinder turbocharged engines. The F1 Commission changed the engine formula to turbocharged V6. Audi and Volkswagen have now been developing 1.6 Litre V6 turbocharged engine for Formula One Racing from the start of this year.
Audi is developing a Hybrid powertrain to be used in the F1 Championship and German automaker said that the entire Audi engine line-up for F1 racing is based on in-house development. However, Audi is still thinking to buy an existing Formula1 operator rather than building up a new operator.
Their main targets are Red Bull racing team and its Italian based development team, Toro Rosso. Red Bull has long been the major sponsor of Audi’s DTM team. Audi has also hired the former Ferrari Formula One team principal Stefano Domenicali but he has no experience of Le Mans style sports cars or Touring Car racing and he cannot speak German either. Let’s see, how these guys will help Audi to prepare for the Formula 1 Championship and win it, as they have left the Le Mans and DTM racing.
