Is Porsche Gearing Up To Take On Audi at the Expense of Lemans?

Porche has interests staked in VW, not Audi...Porche has nothing to do with Bugatti, Lamborghini, Bentley, or Audi...

If I recall correctly, Toyo and Lex are trying F1 in the future

What differrence does it make, competition is always a good thing, it brings better products for the consumer.

“I would return to the dearest to Le Mans, but that would be a giant expenditure”, says Penske and continues to play the ball after Zuffenhausen: “That is a decision the Porsche to meet would have.”

I love internet translators.

Stupid decision by Porsche. They made good cars for Le Mans

Lemans irrelevant. They (porsche +vw) need a play in F1 to play with big boys. audi would be the nameplate to mount their challenge

And then, BMW would immediately leave F1 because Audi came, because they know they'll lose. It's the "run and hide" theory.

There is no doubt in my mind that the R10 will defeat anything that dare crosses its path.

By the way, that last sentence was about LeMans- not F1.

You're just saying LeMans doesn't matter because BMW isn't in it. Pretty sad.

No such thing as a "run and hide theory".

But I would like to see Audi and/or Porsche return to F1.

OK so it was AU in pre F1 Grand Prix Championship, nevertheless.

The team should be called Auto Union Audi, and cars should be silver.

Return of the Auto Union Silver Arrows would be so cool.

let's see.. if vw owns audi, bugatti, lambo etc and porsche owns 20% of vw, how can you say that porsche doesn't have direct stakes in audi?

and foxy lady, your run and hide "theory" is no more intelligent than my "vw is too coward to run with the big boys" theory or my "bmw would be kicking audi's ass in lemans if bmw were in lemans" theory.

many many car manufactures don't do more than a couple motorsport events because their budget can't really support multiple investments. i'm not exactly sure there's enough interest for bmw to do events other than f1 and motogp (event sponsorship and r&d). besides, not everyone can afford f1. and ferrari doesn't do lemans, why should bmw? besides, audi's recent success in lemans certainly reflects a loooooonnnng pedigree of motorsport excellence in lemans... in reality, vw is years behind joining f1 because they have no history of f1 involvement whatsoever.

what i do know is this: i know a magazine interviewed a top vw executive and in the interview the executive claimed that spending (and losing) hundreds of millions of dollars to develop bugatti veyron's was in a way vw's f1 project. this claim by vw actually proves vw's financial ability to fund a f1 project. vw's lack of f1 involvement can be only viewed as cowardance. besides, how can the development of a street car be compared to f1 racing? there was no competitor whatsoever building the bugatti veyron. the claim is absolutely ignorant and actually points towards the possibility of the "vw is too coward to run with the big boys" theory.

VW-Audi is smart for staying out of F1. Could they afford to put a team on the track? Probably, but would have a hard time justifying it. To be competitive, it would cost somewhere in the neighborhood of $400M first year. As Toyota keeps proving year after year, it doesn't necessarily matter how much money you've got. It's about putting a TEAM together of qualified individuals and finding the right driving talent. Would you spend $400M of your's or your company's money and not be able to promise results? I'd like to watch you get that past YOUR board! They race in LeMans type racing because it's a prestigious event that doesn't cost that much. I think the budget is around $50M. If Porsche comes aboard with an LMP1 car, that would be awsome! If Audi could beat Porsche, that would be huge! As I see it, Porsche is the only manufacturer that has a chance against the Audi team. If Audi could still win with Porsche on the track, that would give them an incredible and much needed boost to their street cred. There was an old saying once, "you never truely win LeMans unless you beat Porsche at LeMans", or something like that anyway.

Porsche does not have "controlling interest" of Audi. They do, however have whatever interest owning 20% of V-Dub gives them. I would like to see who wins in the boardroom if the discussion of putting a Porsche LMP1 car on the track ever comes up. Do you go out and spank the all conquering Audis right off the bat or do you play possum a couple of years first? It would, however be oh so Porsche like to come out for one year, blow the Audi's away just to say they still "own the place" and then go on building LMP2 cars for customers, and I think THAT is exactly what will happen.

I say B-R-I-N-G I-T!