F1 : Audi Motorsport and Volkswagen still not interested in Formula 1 foray...
F1 : Audi Motorsport and Volkswagen still not interested in Formula 1 foray http://www.f1sa.com/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=29269:f1--audi-motorsport-and-volkswagen-still-not-interested-in-formula-1-foray&catid=1:f1&Itemid=157 Audi motor racing chief Wolfgang Ullrich has reinforced the Volkswagen Group marque's decision to stay away from Formula One. As a debate rages about Formula 1's 2013 rules, it had been hoped that the turbo 4 cylinder formula would entice new manufacturers, like VW, onto the grid. But Ullrich told Car Magazine that Le Mans style endurance racing is the better bet for Audi. "There's a very good reason why we are not in Formula 1," he said. "There's no relevance to the road. "At Le Mans, one of our cars will cover 325 miles more than a Formula 1 car will cover in an entire season, our average speed including pit stops will be 20mph higher than an Formula 1 car and we will use 42 percent less fuel. "You cannot argue with those figures," he said
Can't argue with that I guess At least he had a response and backed it up with facts and figures. No loss.
F1 has to make economic sense. The main benefit of F1 to a manufacturer is the advertising exposure. Its a show. To those that claim some sort of technology transfer to street cars are wishing on a star.
Well, Audi is spending a lot of money in a car wich people only care about during 24 hours in the whole year. Don´t know if that´s relevant or not.
LeMans series racing is a fairly busy calendar. Road car improvements from Audi are derived from its racing efforts. TDI vehicles are powerful and efficient, as he outlined their TDI performance in races.
It makes sense to me. Audi brand has no F-1 history. Auto Union does, but is closely associated with the Nazi's... not sure why? VW does not need to do F-1 because its target audience is not really always in the f-1 crowd. Bugatti or Lamborghini are the two marques that really fit the F-1 mold, Buggatti have the only real positive F-1 history... but again Bugatti does not need to advertize to sell Million dollar cars.... So that leaves Porsche... who has always been un successful in F-1 as a constructor - TAG Turbo did great, but Porsche branded engines / cars not so much. they would have more reputation to lose than to gain. If they were going to go in to F-1 I would do it under the Bugatti marque ...
I think Audi/VW are concerned that they wont be able to compete with the other manufacturers in F1. They saw what happened to Toyota and Honda after pouring hundreds of millions of dollars and neither team could not even come close to Ferrari, BMW, Mercedes and Renault. They have been enjoying easy competition in Le Mans for the last 5 years.
While I agree they do look cool, have you ever (not!) heard them running? The diesel is so quiet they "whoosh" by with a little tire noise, and that's it - I'm sorry, but they simply don't get the hair standing up the way a "real" race engine does...... (IMO ) Cheers, Ian
It's unfortunate because there used to be relevance on the engine side before the FIA/Max stopped any significant development. IIRC, Honda's variable valve timing came from F1. As did the engine electronics for BMW's M-cars a decade ago. Manufacturers used to consider F1 a great training ground for their engineers. Not anymore.
I have not been following F1 for very long, so I don't have 1/10th the knowledge many do here. But I also note a ton of complaints about how F1 is just a parade or a circus, no passing, nutty regulations. So why would a manufacturer that is successful at an historic form of motorsport - which also has more relevance to their own product - have ANY interest whatsoever in dumping that for F1?
I think that is a bunch of BS. Why would they even want to get into F1 TODAY? VW/Audi is nearly the #1 car manufacturer today, without being in F1. I don't think Honda and Toyota got out of F1 because they could not 'compete', I think they got out because the COST to compete - even three years ago when the rules were different - was nuts. You have to be able to justify the expense, and for what some (companies) want to do, that justification does not make fiscal sense. It seems the only companies that 'should' get into F1 are those that sell exotic performance cars, or cars that sell mainly in yurrup, and let's not forget Lamborghini made a thinly veiled shot at F1 with a (private) engine in the early 90's - it didn't last. Porsche did with the TAG in the 80's, but the development of that engine was paid for not by Porsche, but by a private investor. Actually, you are right - why get into F1 when they can dominate another series?
Nothing to win for VW, too much to lose - big corporate manufacturers have a proven record of failing miserably over the last years, and it costs crazy amounts of money. Even if they made it to the top, the average VW buyer wouldn't be interested at all. In the worst case, he might even frown upon it because F1 isn't exactly green. I don't think so. Again, too much to lose if Bugatti, the most expensive of them all, battles with HRT and Force India...
I'm sure their line of thinking is "why screw with this when we can go win at LeMans every year and get tons of press?"
They are not to blame. A money pit for most car brands (does Renault sell more cars because of F1?). Bragging rights are cool, but F1-money cool?
Didn't Williams make a few million dollars profit last year? I think I read that somewhere. Surely if they're making profit, so are most of the others. or did their income come from elsewhere and not F1?
+1 Non manufacturer teams are in F1 to make money (and because they love what they do). I'm pretty sure Williams and Sauber are making money. They do so through sponsorships plus Bernie's pool, which is based on WCC points (and which is why Peter Sauber was about to have a heart attack after loosing all his Melbourne points). The big boys obviously are in it for other reasons (win Sunday, sell Monday) but as folks already pointed out: What could VW possible sell on Monday that's related to F1? Porsche in F1 however would make a lot of sense and would be something I'd love to see. Whether "just" as an engine manufacturer or as a full team. Same goes for Lamborghini btw.
We know LM series because we are car nuts. The average guy has never heard of Sebring or Spa-Francorchamps. The name of the Series says it all: Le Mans is the big name. Besides that, VW had been making TDI engines way before they entered Le Mans, and they only race them because someone at the ACO thought that having diesel engines winning at Le Mans would atract some mini-van manufacturers to their then raquitic entry lists. I think that maybe the Audi boss should read more Aesop.