Here, Audi's Le Mans/WEC LMP1 cars were designed, Formula E power units optimised, the WRX-winning A1 conceived and the complex range extender Dakar RS Q e-tron devised. Inaugurated in 2014, the 47-hectare complex comprises a state-of-the-art technical campus alongside Audi's test and driving experience facility. "I pinched myself when it was publicly announced," Stefan Dreyer (pictured above), an Audi Sport lifer and its Technical Director for power units, tells RacingNews365ĭuring the first visit by an English-language F1 outlet to Audi Sport's 'Motorsport Competence Centre' in Neuburg an der Donau - situated a 20-minute car ride west of Audi's Ingolstadt headquarters - since the F1 project was confirmed.
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Present were FIA President Mohammed Ben Sulayem, F1 CEO Stefano Domenicali, Audi's Duesmann and its Board Member for Development, Oliver Hoffmann - under whom Audi Sport falls.Īs an aside, during the conference Duesmann stated Audi’s F1 engines would be designed and produced in Germany, adding, "If Porsche comes in, they will have their operations in the UK, it will be totally separate." Unsaid was that Mercedes builds its PUs in Britain, plus did Duesmann then know Porsche and Red Bull would pull the plug on their proposed joint venture? Ten days later Audi hosted a press conference at Spa-Francorchamps during which it confirmed its F1 entry, initially as PU supplier.
Porsche and Audi made cooing noises, but would they enter? Screw up and VW Group walked.Įventually all was agreed and announced by the WMSC on 16 August, the touch points being: Budget cap of $100m per annum, limits on bench testing, a glide path for newcomers to ease themselves in, net carbon zero via non-fossil fuels, and 1000bhp power units via a 50/50 mix of ICEs based on current units without MGU-H and hybrid. The governing body knew it had one shot at getting it right, particularly with regard to sustainability and cost control. Much to-ing and fro-ing took place to December last year before an outline set of 2026-30 PU regulations was agreed by the FIA Engine Working Group, but ratification by the FIA World Motorsport Council remained elusive because not all i's had been dotted nor the t's crossed. That was not all: Since the last F1 engine supplier, namely Honda, entered the sport (in 2015), global environmental concerns escalated such that during the same week as the FIA summit the EU announced plans to cut average CO2 emissions for passenger cars with internal combustion engines from 95g per kilometre by 2030 and to zero five years later. Clearly, then, F1 needed to prune engine budgets just as it had team budgets. As for open ended dynamometer testing – just more money going up in a haze of exhaust smoke. Nor would, for that matter, retention of the technically fascinating but horrifically expensive and complex MGU-H energy recovery units that hold zero interest for carmakers and are thus of no interest to potential entrants. It was clear that budgets of $250m for a season supply of engines to eight cars (at most) - effectively 40 units plus a pile of 'mule' engines used for testing - was hardly going to attract the cream of the motor industry. Thus, one of the objectives of the summit was to determine the conditions under which new brands may enter F1, particularly as engine suppliers. Add in engine operations and things rapidly double. Still, attending such meetings is cheap the costly bit is signing up to F1 participation, whether as power unit supplier or team owner: even after budget caps on chassis and racing operations were introduced last year, there is little change from $250m when all costs are tallied. The first rumblings that VW Group was considering entering Formula 1 surfaced in July 2021 during a power unit summit called by the FIA during the Austrian Grand Prix weekend: The German carmaker, which comprises 11 brands across two and four wheels and heavy vehicles, was represented by two divisional CEOs, namely Oliver Blume of Porsche and Audi top man Markus Duesmann.
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