MOTORSPORT: New VW chief’s pledge on racing

New Volkswagen chief executive Matthias Muller has reiterated that the group’s motorsport activities are sacrosanct amid the ‘Dieselgate’ scandal.

“The motorsports programs are not in danger of being dropped or significantly reduced because motorsports is very important for the group and the brands,” Muller has said.

“Basically, we do not question our motorsport efforts.”

VW has won World Rally Championship driver and manufacturer titles three consecutive years with Sebastien Ogier and its Polo R.

It is committed to remaining in the WRC until 2019.

Porsche, the company from which Muller transferred to replace Martin Winterkorn after the emissions scandal erupted, has just won the World Endurance Championship in its second season back in top-level sports car racing with its enclosed 919 model powered by a turbocharged 2.0-litre V4 engine and two hybrid systems.

Porsche and another VW group brand, Audi, won all eight WEC rounds, relegating last year’s champion manufacturer, Japan’s Toyota, to a distant third this year.

Porsche won six rounds – the Le Mans 24-Hour in June and five six-hour races since – after Audi won the first two six-hours.

Australian Mark Webber, New Zealander Brendon Hartley and German Timo Bernhard secured the WEC drivers’ title at the weekend in Bahrain, watched by Muller – who has an engineering background and inherited a fondness for motorsport from his father.

Muller said this year had been “a tremendous season” in the sport for the VW group “with incredible success and a huge effort of all teams”.

There had been some doubts about whether Audi would continue in sports car racing, having dominated it – especially Le Mans – this century, but Muller’s comments confirm it will continue to compete against sister brand Porsche.

Audi also races in Germany’s renowned touring car championship, the DTM.

Porsche fosters competition worldwide with its cars, although it is revising its participation in the WEC’s GTE Pro class as it develops a facelifted 911.

Apart from rallying, VWs excel in rallycross – Beetles driven by ex-Formula 1 racer Scott Speed and American Top Gear presenter Tanner Foust were first and third in this year’s US-based Global Rallycross Championship and Swede Johan Kristoffersson is third in a Polo in the World RX ending in Argentina this weekend.

VW engines have powered multiple championship successes in Formula 3 open-wheelers, including by Daniel Ricciardo in Britain in 2009.

Muller is an advocate of learning from technology in motorsport, but not F1.

There were signs before ‘Dieselgate’ and Winterkorn’s departure that VW may have been softening towards a long-speculated F1 project, especially as Red Bull Racing’s German-speaking tycoon Dietrich Mateschitz has been desperate to find a new power unit to return his team to the competitiveness that won it world titles in 2010-2013.

However, Muller is understood to believe that supplying engines in F1 does not sufficiently promote automotive brands.

Meanwhile, two-time Indianapolis 500 winner and ex-F1 and NASCAR racer Juan Pablo Montoya has tested a Porsche 919 Hybrid in Bahrain since the WEC finale.

Colombian Montoya lapped about 1.2 seconds slower than Timo Bernhard’s pacesetting qualifying time last Friday,  even though team principal Andreas Seidl said conditions had not been as conducive to fast times.

Porsche has a vacancy for a new high-profile driver at Le Mans with German F1 ace Nico Hulkenberg unable to defend this year’s victory in a third, one-off entry because a new grand prix in Azerbaijan clashes with the French classic next year.

However, Montoya can’t fill the seat yet. While he is free on June 18-19 next year, the IndyCar calendar precludes him from undertaking the compulsory Le Mans preparations, including the official test day.

“At some point it would be cool to do it, and if you are going to do Le Mans it has got to be in a car like this,” Montoya said.

“It is amazing. It is a lot of fun, it has a lot of power and is really stable.

“It is shocking because it is so good that it is actually, in a way, kind of easy.

“It is so predictable that it invites you to hustle the hell out of it.”

Young New Zealander Mitch Evans, a protégé of Mark Webber and a two-time GP2 open-wheeler winner this year, also tested the 919 but was more than 2 seconds slower than Montoya.

Another Kiwi, Richie Stanaway, who has raced an Aston Martin GT this year, tested one of Audi’s R18 e-tron quattros, lapping faster than Evans.