Fire up the rumor mill, Audi’s reportedly attending an FIA meeting about F1 engines.
According to German website, Spox, Audi will be in attendance at a meeting the FIA is holding in Paris to discuss the future (after 2021) of engine regulations in Formula 1.
The meeting’s details are still obscure at this point, but FIA president Jean Todt has ruled out the possibility of returning to the days of big V10 engines, meaning that the sport will continue to use small displacement, turbocharged, hybrid engines.
“I realize this is a sensitive subject,” Todt told La Repubblica. “F1 is the flagship of the motorsport industry, and it must be in line with the technological developments of the industry. On the other hand, it must be a balance to keep it sustainable. The machines today are too sophisticated.”
Audi recently pulled out of the World Endurance Championship, where its TDI-powered cars had been wildly successful. With the dieselgate scandal, though, Volkswagen lost interest in pouring money into the development of an engine technology that is now on its way out.
But the manufacturer isn’t done with racing. Audi followed up its departure from WEC with the announcement that it would give full factory support to the ABT Schaeffler Audi Sport Formula E team, as it helped promote the manufacturer’s coming electric technologies.
With that in mind, participating in F1 could be appealing to Audi because of the sport’s prestige, hybrid technology, and because it’s an opportunity to stick it to Mercedes. Moreover, the sport agrees that Formula 1 needs to be less expensive.
Rumors about Audi joining F1 have come around before, though, never amounting to much, so it’s probably unwise to get excited about an Audi F1 car at this point.
[source: carscoops]
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