Audi ditches WEC for Formula E

Audi has killed off the most successful Le Mans racing program in modern history, shifting its motorsport focus to the burgeoning Formula E category.

The German brand will retain its GT customer program and its domestic DTM tin-top racing team, but will end its involvement in the World Endurance Championship and the Le Mans 24 hour classic at the end of this year.

That means the team which won 13 times in 18 attempts has already run its last Le Mans 24 Hour classic, where it also took legendary Danish racer Tom Kristensen to seven of his nine wins at La Sarthe.

Audi ushered in many milestones at Le Mans, including the first win for a diesel car, the first win for a hybrid car and has won the WEC twice and the American Le Mans Series nine times in a row since 2000. It has 80 pole positions and 106 wins from 185 starts in the WEC.

Audi’s 300-strong motorsport operation will now pivot to Formula E and, intriguingly, the company has floated the prospect of signing on with a full works team if the FIA switches the World Rallycross Championship to battery-electric power.

“We’re going to contest the race for the future on electric power,” Audi Chairman Rupert Stadler said while guaranteeing the future employment of the Audi Motorsport workforce this morning.

“As our production cars are becoming increasingly electric, our motorsport cars, as Audi’s technological spearheads, have to even more so,” he explained.

Audi already has a toe in the water with Formula E, supporting the Team ABT Schaeffler Audi Sport operation this year, but will sign on as a full factory team from the 2017/2018 season.

Audi plans to have its first battery-electric vehicle (BEV), a mid-sized e-tron crossover SUV, on sale in the US and Europe in 2018 and Stadler called it the beginning of the “greatest transformation stage in the company’s history”.

It will build into its 2017 program by intensifying its financial and technical involvement with the Team ABT Schaeffler Audi Sport in the 2016/2017 season ahead of a full-factory effort the following season.

Audi will join other works teams from Renault, Jaguar, Chinese BEV makers NextEV and Faraday Future and India’s Mahindra, while Mercedes-Benz has reserved a team slot for the 2017/2018 season.

Other contenders in the 10-team formula include Virgin, Venturi, TeCheetah and MS Amlin Andretti. US motor racing icon Roger Penske is heavily involved with Faraday Future Dragon Racing, Williams is involved in the Jaguar team and BMW and Indy racing team owner Michael Andretti are both working with MS Amlin Andretti.

Now in its third season, the category runs a control chassis, with free battery development and free front and rear suspension designs. The cars can regenerate up to 150kW of power under braking, though output is capped at 200kW, though it will increase to 220kW in the fourth season and 250kW in its fifth year.

The 880kg cars are weighed down with a maximum of 230kg of battery and this is the first season where they don’t have to change cars mid-race to complete a race distance.

It seats are filled with a who’s who of ex Formula 1 drivers and category champions from other race series, ranging from ex WTCC champion Jose Maria Lopez to one of Formula 1’s most experienced drivers Nick Heidfeld. Other F1 refugees include Sebastien Buemi, Lucas di Grassi, Nelson Piquet Junior and Jean-Eric Vergne.

Audi’s move frees up its Volkswagen Group stable mate Porsche to contest the WEC without internal interference as it seeks to build on its 18 Le Mans victories.

“Obviously [it’s] extremely hard to leave,” Audi Motorsport boss Dr Wolfgang Ulrich told the team.

“Audi Sport Team Joest shaped the WEC during this period like no other team. I would like to express my thanks to our squad, to Reinhold Joest and his team, to the drivers, partners and sponsors for this extremely successful cooperation. It’s been a great time!”

Audi’s decision to walk away from the WEC and Le Mans was largely shaped by the Dieselgate crisis, cost-cutting and the brand’s aim for an electrified future. Audi and Porsche both cut down from three- to two-car Le Mans assaults this year for cost reasons.

Unlike Porsche, Audi’s WEC LMP1 hybrid racers were diesel powered and Volkswagen Group CEO Matthias Mueller has gone on record to say he prefers increasing electric powered or assisted models in favour of a big array of diesel motors.

Another factor was the prospect of a near-complete redesign of its six-megajoule R18 e-tron Quattro powertrain for 2018 to reach up to the WEC’s incoming 10-megajoule regulation.

The boost in electric power of the hybrid racers would have dictated that Audi’s 3.7-litre turbodiesel V6 be redesigned and redeveloped to include a second recuperation system for its kinetic energy.

Audi's new board member for sales and marketing Dr Dietmar Voggenreiter explained to motoring.com.au the reasons behind the German car-maker's interest in FE at last month's Paris motor show.

"Formula E is in a very early stage. Whether it will be a famous motorsport platform, we don't know. We will wee, but we see at the beginning now, after two or three years of racing, there is a huge and more than expected interest especially from the customer, because it's always in downtown areas.

"So it's a very interesting format. Let's see how it develops.

"It's not a testing ground for us actually, because the technology which is used in Formula E was in the past standardised between all racing teams, and now we can influence a little bit more. That's why we are now entering with our motorsport program, but it's not as open and flexible as Formula 1."

Asked if he's like it to be more open, Dr Voggenreiter said: "It would bring more competition, but let's give it room to develop.

"It's a very early stage. It's a very young series. It's not good to open every barrier because it becomes a very expensive race series in the short-term like F1 and other series.

"I think the development plan for Formula E is very good. It's a new format we are entering and in one or two years I can give you a different answer to how it developed."