BERLIN: German luxury car brands Audi and Porsche will be entering Formula 1, after convincing the board of parent company Volkswagen that the move will bring in more money than it will cost, VW chief executive Herbert Diess said on Monday.
The two marquee badges, which next to VW’s China business are the group’s most important profit generators, made their case after several months of speculation that such a move was in the works.
Speaking at an event in Wolfsburg, where VW is based, Diess said on Monday that Porsche’s preparations for entering F1 were a little more concrete than Audi’s.
Audi is ready to offer around €500 million ($556.3 million) for British luxury sports carmaker McLaren as a means to enter, a source told Reuters in March, while Porsche intends to establish a long-term partnership with racing team Red Bull starting in several years’ time.
Audi is also reported to have had talks with Sauber, Aston Martin and Williams.
The decision comes as Volkswagen prepares for a possible listing of Porsche AG in the fourth quarter of this year, though Reuters quotes sources as having said the entry into F1 would only be likely to happen in a few years’ time.
BBC Sport reports that Porsche would partner with Red Bull’s new engine division, which has been set up to design and build the drinks brand’s own power-unit for the new engine regulations due in F1 in 2026, and the team would run as Red Bull-Porsche.
Last year, then Porsche Motorsport vice-president Fritz Enzinger told BBC Sport the company was again considering an entry, as long as the new engine rules went in a way that suited it.
This is now the case. F1’s new engine will run on fully sustainable fuels – a non-negotiable requirement for a VW Group entry – and will make electric power a greater proportion of the overall output of the engine than is currently the case.
Last month, the VW Board approved in principle the idea of Porsche and Audi entering F1, once the engine rules were confirmed.
F1 has not yet fully defined the engine regulations but the overall direction of travel is clear.
The architecture of the engine will be the same as now, a 1.6-litre V6 turbo hybrid.
The hybrid system itself will be simplified for 2026, with the removal of the complex MGU-H, which recovers and redeploys energy from the turbocharger, BBC Sport further reports.
The hybrid is planned to produce 50% of the total power output of the engine.
