Skip to main content

Porsche Considers Kicking Ferrari’s Ass in Formula 1

The brain trust at Porsche is starting to wonder if its motorsports budget might be better spent racing against Ferrari, McLaren, and Mercedes in Formula 1 rather than winning the 24 Hours of Le Mans against broken down Toyotas.

Porsche has always had a tumultuous relationship with the single seater series: Stuttgart first pulled out in the ’60s due to costs after just two years and one race win, the ’80s saw Porsche power McLaren to two constructors championships and twenty-five race victories, and lastly, an embarrassing 1991 return in which the company’s engines failed to qualify more than half the time.

But now, if reports from Germany’s Auto Motor und Sport are to be believed, Porsche is once again evaluating a return to the pinnacle of motorsport, with Porsche’s board poised to decide in the next few weeks if the sports car and SUV manufacturer will pull out of the World Endurance Championship in favor of Formula 1.

It’s believed Porsche was one of the manufacturers in attendance during F1’s engine constructor meeting that took place on July 4th. The meeting included current manufacturers Mercedes, Ferrari, Renault, and Honda, along with Aston Martin, Ilmor Engineering, and Cosworth as the FIA works to hammer out engine regulations for 2021 and beyond.

Should Porsche decide to participate its engine concept would need to be finalized by 2019 before appearing on the grid in either 2020 or 2021, ruling out a potential rekindling of the McLaren-Porsche relationship for next season.

For Porsche, there’s not much left to accomplish in the WEC after dominating the series since returning in 2014, including three overall victories at Le Mans along with consecutive drivers and constructors championships in 2015 and 2016.

With Audi quitting prototype racing last year, the series has lost much of its luster with only two top shelf manufacturers competing for overall wins. Should Porsche decide to pull out of the WEC immediately, it’s thought the company could join sister brand Audi competing in Formula E as a stop gap.

Whatever happens, Zuffenhausen will officially announce its decision before the WEC’s Mexican round in early September.

This article first appeared on luxury4play.com

The post Porsche Considers Kicking Ferrari’s Ass in Formula 1 appeared first on VWVortex.



from VWVortex http://ift.tt/2varQP0
via IFTTT
Labels:

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

2018 Lamborghini Aventador S Roadster Review

“Supercars just don’t excite me anymore.” These words, spoken to me over a month ago by another journalist, friend, and (so-called) enthusiast were echoing in my head for far too long, but they’ve finally been drowned out. Drowned out by the wail of a naturally aspirated 6.5-liter V12 engine mounted in the middle of the new Lamborghini Aventador S Roadster. My friend’s point is that back in the good old days, there was a crop of supercars that captured the imagination with amazing style, sounds, performance, and more. Today, it seems like everything is capable of supercar performance, with large luxury sedans outdoing some of the best and most dedicated teams of car nuts, while former pillars of automotive excellence are suddenly pumping out family-friendly SUVs. Beyond that, another league of supercars, dubbed hypercars have cropped up with hybrid gas-electric powertrains that make magical things happen quickly, but at the cost of the acoustic drama, visual flair, and engag...
Post a Comment
Read more

Project SportWagen: Going Stage 2 with APR

    When we last left you, the humble little SportWagen was fresh from the development process with our friends at AWE Tuning, sporting a new downpipe, exhaust and intake, allowing things to breathe a bit easier.  The car sounded great, but there was no getting around the fact that our wagon was still quite, well, slow.   While we realize that nothing we do to the Golf SportWagen at this point will make it a race car, we still felt compelled to do something .  To put it bluntly, we had a fever, and the only cure was more power. Flash forward a few hours, and we found ourselves at Waterfest, staring down APR’s palatial spread and the numerous tuned vehicles surrounding it.  Earlier in the year, APR had hinted to us that their 1.8 TSI files would be quite impressive, and based on what they were able to do with the 2.0 TSI found in the new GTI and our time in their Golf R, we knew it’d be worth the wait.  So with this in mind, we lined our G...
Post a Comment
Read more

Project Golf SportWagen- Intro

I’ve never really been one for SUVs and crossovers.  The current offerings aren’t the body-on-frame, go-anywhere specialty tools I remember from my youth, and what they lack in capability, they also lack in on-road performance. The current crop isn’t terribly good at handling or being efficient, which in my opinion are major components of our ideal driving experience.  So when it comes to space or utility, I usually look for something of the wagon variety- and it seems that I’m not alone. We hit quite a few shows around the east coast each summer, and we see modified Jetta SportWagens at nearly every event. Even amongst common consumers, these cars are highly sought-after. They don’t depreciate much, making even early Mk 5 2.5 versions expensive in comparison to other Jettas or Golfs of the same vintage. This year, Volkswagen launched their latest SportWagen, which is now billed as a Golf.  In many ways, this latest SportWagen is the best yet and it has certai...
Post a Comment
Read more