Audi has dropped everything for F1: 'As long as they win'
F1 News
From 2026, Audi will be on the F1 grid as a team in partnership with Sauber. Audi has been putting out good news each time over the past year about the progress of building the team. Heavy criticism is now also coming from the team's sports division.
Indeed, Audi is said to have dropped everything to build the F1 branch. Audi boss Markus Duesmann's main decision is that he has stopped the Audi Sport Customer Racing programme. That means the Audi R8 LMS GT3 will no longer be built. This drew criticism from Duesmann from his own company
Audi drops everything for F1
For instance, Audi motorsport chief Ernst Moser tells Motorsport.com that he does not agree with the choice of Duesmann, who is still leaving the team later this year. Moser tells Motorsport.com that Audi has fully focused on Formula 1 and that it is annoying for the employees who have worked so hard on Audi's other sports projects in recent years.
Moser's criticism reads, "It's his [Duesmann's] personal opinion. [I don't know] why he does not want to invest anymore in everything else." Audi is already no longer WRT's partner. The racing team is partnering up with BMW instead of Audi. WRT team boss Vincent Vosse also balks at this.
Vosse says that when Duesmann started at Audi, it was already clear that he wanted to quit the DTM. That happened in 2020. Vosse: "If they win in Formula 1 then people will quickly forget about it, but I still have my doubts." According to Vosse, it is possible to remain active in other racing classes besides F1.