Las Vegas GP's and AUDI going F1 racing? - Is it April 1st already! I found this part a bit odd!: "Its understood that Audi was close to entering F1 in 2013, and was the driving force behind the sports aborted plan to use four-cylinder turbocharged engines. At Audis urging, the FIAs World Motor Sport Council proposed, in late in 2010, to turn F1 into a four-cylinder turbo formula. Audi backflipped on joining the sport, though, and the F1 Commission changed the engine formula to turbocharged V6. Insiders insist Audi and the Volkswagen Group have now been working on a 1.6-litre V6 turbo Formula One engine since early this year." Now as I understood things, Renault were the ones pushing for in-line 4 cylinder turbo engines to make F1 more relevant to modern road cars (to the point of threatening to walk away from F1 if 4 cylinder turbo's were not introduced!), and when Ferrari argued that in-line 4 cylinder engines had no relevance to their cars, it was agreed by all to make the engines V6 turbo's instead. This is the first time that I've heard any suggestion whatsoever that AUDI were behind the change of engine spec! TBH, I can't see how a company not already involved in F1, and making no concrete, irreversible guarantee to join F1, would be able to sway FIA policy on future engine specifications - Especially when it could be at the cost of those already participating in F1!
I dimly (the way I remember most things) remember something along those lines but it being VW not Audi.
Audi sells about half as many units in the US as Merc and BMW. BMW pulled out of F1 and sales did not suffer. Merc is at the top of F1 now. Does Audi really want to take the real risk of losing to Merc? Lambo could double sales and still not make a dent in the F1 expenses. And Lamborghini can only build so many cf tubs. They are hand made and have have sterile conditions and curing machines. This takes time. As one who owns a Fcar and Audi I would enjoy having two teams to root for in F1 but I will believe it when I see it. Best
True but they did field their own team in 1991 with a Lambo designed chassis. Almost secured a point during the season but DNFed or DNPQed on a regular basis. The team entered races with minimal commitment due to financial limitations after their primary sponsor slithered away, a shame because the car had promise and I always rated Larini highly.
I wonder what the percentage is geographically. I feel like I see just as many new Audi's on the road as new BMW's. Mercedes not nearly as much nor do they look nearly as good as either one of B's or A's.
VW or AUDI is basically the same thing anyway. However, VW have always denied having any interest in F1 due to the costs involved. As I say, I find it strange that the FIA would allow a company with no immediate links to F1 to dictate future engine policy to them (I struggle to believe that they were that desperate to get VW [or AUDI], on board TBH!)
We both know the FIA well enough to know that they don't need big bags of money to be involved to make stupid decisions!
With all this talk about third entries, right about now, Bernie is probably wishing that his pal Max hadn't run off major manufacturers like BMW and Toyota with all of the constant, absurd rules changes and replacing them with the likes of Caterham and Marussia. VW (including all of their subsidiaries) has stated that they intend to be the world's largest automobile manufacturer by 2017. So, in this regard, it would make sense that they'd want to have high profile presence in F-1, the natural competition of Audi vs. Mercedes-Benz being of particular interest rather than taking on their in-house competition Porsche in the WEC. It's probably worth mentioning as well that Audi just won the DTM manufacturer's championship where Mercedes-Benz had a horribly embarrassing season to the point where they sped up construction of their 2015 spec cars which were entered in the last two races. Audi's hiring of Domecalli certainly threw fuel onto this rumor of course. Since Domencalli has no experience in endurance racing, those connecting the dots of an Andi entry into F-1 is not as far-fetched as it may seem. With only three engine manufactures (four including Honda next year) in F-1 and grids struggling to keep 20 cars, rest assured Bernie is doing anything he can to bolster more manufacturer involvement and fill out his grids as he has contracts and obligations to have full grids with all of the circuits. In short (pun intended), Bernie has a problem. BHW
As I have always maintained that daft b'strd has a lot to answer for, and the effects of his dictatorship are still felt now, and some on here still defend the half wit.< Yes that was his name for JS.
The issue with this is, everything they seem to do lately is in the name of "cost containment". But then, they turn right around and institute the largest, most far reaching and costliest rules changes in the history of the sport, leaving Max's minnow teams struggling to remain afloat. BHW
Totally agree, and Mosley was one of the main clowns, reasonable for changing rules on a whim costing the teams millions, under the guise of maintaining he was trying to cut costs. Personally I have no problem with F1 keeping up to date and relevant to what is being sold in the high street, I love new Tech, fuel saving yes am okay with that, it is a ridiculous notion IMO to keep racing gas guzzling dinosaurs, just because they sounded better.< besides I had this idea that historic racing catered for that... F1 has to move with the times, some might like watching drivers strapped to the back of Dromiceiomimus's, but you can count me out. If F1 can do more with less and still provide a show, well so what, it's better than nothing IMO. And all this old bolloxs bringing back outdated methods like steel brakes ect to bring back better driving and racing, well you can stick it as far as I'am concerned, F1 can develop new and better, with the added benefit of a trickle down effect. I'll tell you how I really feel, sometime soon
If Audi gets into F-1, you may be sure it won't be to show "What is old is new again". Anytime Audi gets into the mix (WRC, SCCA TransAm, P-1, etc.) they always bring a decided advantage which changes the whole game that elevates things to a whole new level. I, for one, hope Audi does it. It wouldn't be a drinks or jeans company getting into the fray but a full on auto manufacturer with plenty of accomplishments already behind it. BHW
The various motorsport series that Audi have previously been involved in have always been far less regimented than F1 is! Take their original foray into British Touring cars for example. When they entered the series, they had noted that there was no exclusion in the rules for four wheel drive cars, so they entered four wheel drive cars and started to dominate the racing. Eventually, it was decided by those running the sport that four wheel drive was far too much of an advantage and so banned it. Audi tried to continue racing with front wheel drive cars but were no longer as competitive and so pulled out of the racing. In F1, there is far less room these days for innovative engineering solutions and so they would have been highly unlikely to enter F1 with any kind of decisive advantage as you suggest. As for: Let's be fair here, the clothing company and the drinks company haven't exactly done too badly in F1 in their time have they? (Far better in fact than the most recent efforts of the likes of BMW, HONDA, TOYOTA, JAGUAR or FORD for example, and it cannot be argued that those five "full on auto manufacturers" do not have an impressive history of accomplishments already behind them, can it?). As it stands, Audi have confirmed (yet again), that they have absolutely no interest in entering F1 and so it's all a moot point anyway!
Surely its just Audi bought air time to advertise a ROAD car during the USGP? I very much doubt it was an ad to confirm their entry to the sport.
