Audi to leave WEC after 2017

4 8 15 16 23 42 108 · Oct 14, 2016

These are only rumors based on certain indices explained in an online article of German magazine "Auto motor und Sport".
As again pasting does not work here on my mobile, before typing so much I ask you: Has anyone ever heard of this? The article is of tonight, so very new.

Jorge Villar · Oct 16, 2016

Mmmm, it's strange, during the live race this morning, the Eurosport commentator said that their plan is to continue.

4 8 15 16 23 42 108 · Oct 16, 2016

Jorge Villar said:
Mmmm, it's strange, during the live race this morning, the Eurosport commentator said that their plan is to continue.

I haven't heard anything either. But they will continue for one more year for sure, so maybe it still is undecided.
Audi will possibly become uncompetitive with Diesel technology when others upgrade to 10 MJ.
Well, we can only take wild guesses for now...

fortyfivekev · Oct 16, 2016

Dr. Ullrich said today that the decision has not yet been taken either way for 2018. As Andreas says, I guess the problem is if they continue they probably need to switch to petrol and then you have all the R&D expense for a new engine.

Andrew Harper · Oct 18, 2016

Yeah I was reading the report on motorsport.com and all the arguments they put forward are valid. The VW scandal costing millions, sister team Porsche racing as well, the possible switch to petrol from diesel.

I have the upmost respect for Audi and what they have achieved. When they decided to supply the R8 prototype as a customer car they saved sportscar racing to a certain extent. Seeing nearly a dozen of them at Silverstone many years ago was a fantastic sight (plus the rumbly Panoz of course

)

The current cars look amazing but if they decide to stop I will be sad, won't be the same without them.

4 8 15 16 23 42 108 · Oct 19, 2016

Just read in my beloved mag "Motorsport aktuell" company bosses will have a meeting on 24th October.
There are rumours Audi could withdraw at the end of THIS season!!!
A Sebring test in January is said to be cancelled already.

Warren Schembri · Oct 19, 2016

Would be sad if this happens.
The WEC race at Fuji over the weekend was for me the best WEC event up to this point and one manufacturer less in the LMP1 class would make it a bit boring

Paul Jeffrey · Oct 26, 2016

Yep - Its official.

Very sad, and hopefully not the start of the end for the WEC golden era...

Andrew Harper · Oct 26, 2016

Paul Jeffrey said:
Yep - Its official.

Very sad, and hopefully not the start of the end for the WEC golden era...

Very sad and I would have liked to at least seen them at Silverstone next year to wish them well.

They always have a massive fan base at Le Mans, although I haven't been during the last few Porsche years.

From my point of view my question would be why? I know we've discussed this above, if it was purely a board room level decision then fair enough but if it was a costs or budget reason then that needs to be investigated to make sure the other teams don't drop out due to the high levels of running costs that the LMP-H cars require.

Fingers crossed all the drivers manage to find themselves good seats for next year, and of course my thoughts go out to the team members, hopefully they'll be able to move onto other teams or projects quickly without being out of work too long (I'm assuming that will happen to some of them).