Audi Rules Out Potential F1 Team Due To Lack Of Technological Relevance

That's too bad that would've been great to see Audi's engine compete with Ferrari, BMW, Mercedes, and so on in one of the greatest, if not the greatest autosport of all time.

I bet if they allowed diesels you would see serious consideration.

The LeMans series that Audi is a part of has about as much technical relevance as F1. No more, no less. This is just an Audi Cop Out.

audi usese the tech from their racing
from quattro, FSI, Turbo, Diesel etc

Why don't you provide specific technical details to enlighten us with your expertise.

As if you need F1 to figure that one out, paddles and aero... Le Mans is good for that just the same. The main difference here is engine development, not shift paddles.

Sorry, but no BMW engines in the current F1 season (wasn't relevant to BMW either I guess). The main contenders are Ferrari, Mercedes and Renault, with Cosworth a distant 4th. Here are the current Constructors season points:

McLaren---------Mercedes (248 points)
Redbull Racing--Renault (218 points)
Ferrari---------Ferrari (165 points)
Mercedes GP-----Mercedes (109 points)
Renault---------Renault (89 points)
Force India-----Mercedes (43 points)
Toro Rosso------Ferrari (10 points)
BMW Sauber------Ferrari (7 points)
Williams--------Cosworth (20 points)
HRT-------------Cosworth (0 points)
Lotus F1--------Cosworth (0 points)
Virgin Racing---Cosworth (0 points)

Leman isn't relevant to their cars? Seems relevant to me.

"The R15 TDI features a 5.5 litres (336 cu in)[4] Turbocharged Direct Injection (TDI) turbodiesel V10 engine, rated at over 600 PS (440 kW; 590 bhp) and 1,050 newton metres (774 ft·lbf) torque. The electrical system uses a lithium-ion battery, a first for Audi sports prototypes, as well as LED headlights,[5][6] and a unique system of LED rear lights that are mounted on the rear wing endplate.[7]"

F1 isn't relevant to road cars? Let's see: double wishbone suspension, programmed fuel injection, variable valve timing, clutchless manuals, and the list goes on. Seems like Audi cannot compete with the big boys to me.

the "big boys" run each time Audi joins
Only Ferrari and Porsche have greater racing DNA

Fuel injection and clutchless manuals ... two developments in which Audi is a leader without having to spend millions in F1. About the "big boys" ... not so big actually, Audi has dominated MB in DTM the past 5 years (BMW does not even want to show up an play in DTM unless they get rule changes to favor them), Audi has the second most wins ever in the 24LM, second only to Ferrari, which does not seem to want to compete in the BIG BOYS league in LM. The number of wins, the number of championships, the relevance of the racing, and the consistency speak for themselves. Enough said.

Vulcan, you really don't know anything about motorsport do you?

Second most wins at the Le Mans 24 hours? you might want to check that statistic...

And as far as the BMW in DTM goes... DTM is changing their regulations to standardise the technical regs with other forms of motorsport, specifically Japanese Super GT, this enables people who build cars to DTM spec or GT500 spec to compete around the world, it also helps bring costs down. After this decision was made BMW became interested - this is the first reason why BMW are interested in returning now.

Apologies if this is a little too unbiased for you to comprehend...

Sorry, but I agree with Audi (and Toyota and BMW and...) that F1 is now irrelevant. There are other racing series that can be used to do the same technical development and testing as F1 at a few tenths of the cost.

Actually S1000RRman and MeanVulcan, Audi has tied Ferrari with nine wins in 24 Heurs de Le Mans. Only Porsche has more with 16. However, if you add Bentley's win utilizing a Audi R10 then Audi is technically ahead (not officially) of Ferrari in Le Mans' wins. Audi has always placed emphasis on motor sports to deliver relevant technology to every day cars. This tradition can be traced all the way back to the early 1900s when Horch demanded that his cars be raced including winning the famous Alpine runs as the first true endurance races in motor sports. It is good idea to actually look at the history rather than make blanket fanboy statements S1000.

Thanks for the stats Viso, I couldn't be bothered to look them up.

I could be wrong, but the Speed 8 was based on the R8, not the R10, and was only competitive after Bentley had the engine and drive train re-developed.. and with nobody else in the LMGTP class that year, and no other manufacturer teams? Like I say, I could be wrong but I seem to recall it at the time as my dad was working for Bentley, and he (along with all the other chaps) was given a scale model of the car that year.

Sorry, but I agree with Audi (and Toyota and BMW and...) that F1 is now irrelevant. There are other racing series that can be used to do the same technical development and testing as F1 at a few tenths of the price.

Audi are so full of BS... Le Mans is not more or less relevant to the road cars as F1, so what they use diesel in their race cars, hardly a revolution... guess what BMW make petrol engines... and SHOCK there F1 engines used petrol too!!! and quattro? SHOCK, F1 cars are Rear wheel drive, and sure enough so are most of BMW's road cars!!! ITS AMAZING HOW MUCH TECH FROM THE F1 CAR BMW USE ON THEIR ROAD CARS....

.. now I'm rolling my eyes in disgust and Audi propoganda believeing fanboys ...

And if Audi are so concerned with the relevance of racing to their road cars can the explain why they run in DTM?

Are you for real? petrol engines were not developed due to F1, neither was RWD. Get a clue buddy.

No... No, and Diesel engines were't developed due to Le Mans, and 4WD was not developed for Rallying.... so what are you Audi fan boys all on about??

Do you understand my point now... or am I being too subtle?

But BMW doesn't have any proganda S1000? Right? BMW fanboys are the most brainwashed lot out there.

Viso, BMW produce customer cars to GT2, GT3, GT4 and S2000 categories so that people can go RACING in road based cars... that is born from a passion for motorsport... I enjoy nearly all forms of motorsport (except lower class open-wheelers), however it seems all Audi fans care about is reading the press release each year the day after the LM24 and just assuming they are great at everything, their passion does not seem to be about motorsport, it seems to be about gloating when they win.. and complaining when they loose. I can totally respect Audi for the LM acheivements, and I will congratulate them on what they have accomplished, however when Audi instruct all their drivers to retire from a DTM race just because they are loosing to Mercedes then I respect them a whole lot less, that shows they don't care about racing, or the fans that pay to go and watch, it just shows they act like children when things don't go their way... and their fan boys are just as bad.

Well, S1000Rman there are always two sides to a story. You choose to believe Mercedes-Benz because it best works with your synopsis against Audi. Understood. You are an Audi hater for some unknown reason. However, Mercedes-Benz in that specific DTM race displayed highly poor sportmanship as they have known to do in the past if you examine their DTM history. MB was loosing and simply wanted to bully its way in by over aggression. But, this is a matter of opinion which we would unlikely never agree upon. I stand corrected, you are right that it was the Audi R8. However, whether Bentley somehow perfected it considering they hadn't raced in decades at Le Mans is a bit suspect. And if I recall the R8 was dominating Le Mans before Bentley rebadged the Audi R8 into their Speed 8. All previous professional motor sport magazines have echoed the same. The Bentley was nothing more than a rebadged R8 as Audi was told by VAG that Bentley had to win Le Mans that year for marketing and sales reasons. As for Audi wanting to read positive press about itself, why not? I am sure MB and BMW want to do the same. And as for Audi not having passion for motor sports, that is seems farfetched. Audi races the new R8s GT in multiple racing series and although they are doing extremely well, they have not won all their races And Audi has not left the series. At this point, Audi has the most diversified motor sport program of any major luxury manufacturer. Plus, they did not win Le Mans last year and still came back to run the race. They didn't leave the series because added restrictions. So, they are not acting like "children." That is best left for BMW and their racing fans. If BMW does not get is way, they leave the series all together. How passionate is that for motor sports? So, let's keep it balanced.

DTM is hard racing, and long term Audi driver Christian Abt is one of the hardest drivers out there, Audi can give as good as they got, whether or not Merc were being overly aggressive or not, it was wrong of Audi to abandon the race. If the Mercs were out of line the stewards would have stepped in and issued penalties to compensate for the situation,.. not for Audi to go off in a strop... I'd have been just as disgusted, probably more so, if it had been BMW.

The Speed 8 development was farmed out to a separate company, not Audi or Bentley... people generalise too much, saying the Speed 8 was basically a R8 is abit like saying an A4 is basically a VW.

I also disagree about the diversity thing, I'm not saying that they are not diverse in their operations but there is more to life than DTM and Lemans. Where Audi went with Lemans, BMW went with F1... Where Audi stick with DTM, BMW stick with production based touring car racing, they are now both venturing out into the GT classes: Audi have their R8 GT3, BMW have developed the M3 GT2 (for LMS), the Z4 GT3 and the M3 GT4, to go with the 320si S2000, and the 120d S2000D cars -- this customer racing program means that pretty much wherever you go in the world you can watch BMW fight it out on track in a huge array of championships - and the list of national and international championships they've won spans the globe! BMW have also recentley entered the World SuperBike Championship with the S1000RR ;), to go with their enduro and stunt bike efforts. They have also over the past couple of years co-operated with teams to build 'factory' paris-dakar racers such as the X3CC. And within the next two years they will most likely be back in DTM. They also run Formula BMW using the FB02 openwheeler, which over the past decade has help launch the careers of a number of current F1 drivers, such as Sebastian Vettel, Nico Rosberg, Timo Glock and Nico Hulkenberg.

Whether or not you like BMW, you cannot deny that they have a wide ranging and impressive motorsport program.

Whatever reason Audi doesn't race F1, it doesn't matter. If Audi says it's not in their best interest to race, so be it. Who the fuck are a bunch of Internet forum posters to tell Audi what is/isn't relevant? None of you work as engineers at Audi or Ferrari, let alone their racing divisions. If Audi says it's not relevant, I'm going to believe them over IRaceFromHome1987.

LMS is important to Audi marketing. F1 is important to Ferrari marketing. Both companies laugh all the way to the bank while they read fan boys arguing. Corporate entities are concerned with making money, not racing. If racing makes them money, they do it. If it doesn't they don't. None of the manufacturers are in it just for the thrill of it.

F1 costs like $150MM a year. Ferrari absolutely needs to do it for their brand. Audi clearly doesn't. I'm sure they have no problem finding other uses for $150MM.