What's the news?
Big news here as Audi, the dominant force in the FIA World Endurance Championship (WEC) for nearly two decades, has shocked motorsport by announcing it will no longer compete in the series - instead deciding to focus on its factory-backed commitment in the all-electric Formula E programme.
Rupert Stadler, chairman of the board of management at Audi AG, spoke to 300 employees of the motorsport department on October 26th to inform them that the company would 'focus on the things that would keep Audi competitive in the years ahead'. That means it will terminate its involvement in endurance racing.
It's hard to stress how big a gap this will leave in the WEC - part of which, of course, is the famous Le Mans 24-hour event - where Audi has been the team to beat for 18 years. Since 1998, it has won 13 times at Le Mans, including the first victories for a TFSI engine (2001), a TDI diesel unit (2006) and a hybrid powertrain (2012).
In the wider championship, Audi has taken part in 185 races - winning 106 of them, securing 80 pole positions and posting 94 fastest laps. Twice, the Audi R18 e-tron quattro won the overall title, while an Audi won the American Le Mans Series (ALMS) nine times in succession from 2000 to 2008. As decisions go, it's kind of like Manchester United saying it no longer wants to take part in the Premier League.
Stadler explained Audi's radical departure from WEC by saying: "We're going to contest the race for the future on electric power. As our production cars are becoming increasingly electric, our motorsport cars - as Audi's technological spearheads - have to even more so."
Audi wants to offer fully battery-electric models year-by-year, starting in 2018, so Formula E is the obvious way to assist with that aim. Handling the company's racing responsibilities going forward will be Team ABT Schaeffler Audi Sport, which is Audi's current partner in the series as it is.
Do not despair if you like seeing an Audi with a combustion engine racing, though, as it will continue to compete in the DTM with the RS 5 in 2017, having secured the manufacturers' and teams' titles in mid-October. The future of its involvement in FIA World Rallycross, though, is not so certain; up to now, its participation here has been supporting the private EKS team, although the possibility of electrification playing some part in rallycross racing in the future means Audi is 'evaluating a possible extension of the commitment'.
Anything else?
Final word on the difficult decision to leave the WEC goes to Dr Wolfgang Ullrich, Audi's head of motorsport, who said: "After 18 years in prototype racing that were exceptionally successful for Audi, it's obviously extremely hard to leave. 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!"