Audi has confirmed that it is “realigning its motorsport strategy”, terminating its FIA World Endurance Championship (WEC) commitment, including the 24 Hours of Le Mans, at the end of the 2016 season.
Instead, the Ingolstadt brand will take up a factory-backed commitment in the all-electric Formula E racing series. Its role in DTM will continue unchanged.
Rupert Stadler, chairman of the board of management at Audi, put the decision in the context of the “current burdens on the brand”, pointing out that it was important to focus on the things that would keep Audi competitive in the years ahead.
“We’re going to contest the race for the future on electric power,” said Stadler. “As our production cars are becoming increasingly electric, our motorsport cars, as Audi’s technological spearheads, have to even more so.”
Audi will thus intensify its existing partnership with Team ABT Schaeffler Audi Sport, actively joining the technical development.
The German automaker added that it had made “no final decision” concerning a future involvement in the FIA World Rallycross Championship.
The departure from the FIA WEC marks the end of a successful era for the brand. For 18 years, Audi was active in Le Mans prototype racing, scoring 13 victories in the 24 Hours of Le Mans. On two occasions, Audi won the championship with the Audi R18 e-tron quattro race car.
“After 18 years in prototype racing that were exceptionally successful for Audi, it’s obviously extremely hard to leave,” said head of Audi Motorsport, Dr. Wolfgang Ullrich.
“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.”
