Audi will enter the Formula 1 World Championship in 2026, coinciding with the new engine regulations that will revolutionize the highest category of world motorsport. He will do it hand in hand with the team Sauber (at the moment alfa romeo), who will not only supply the engines, but will be in charge of developing the entire car.
The German brand has already launched a project in which it will inject €270 million in the next three years, an investment with which they hope to catch up with the leading teams on the grid since their first season in the ‘great circus’.
Until now, both Sauber and Audi have avoided making any statements about the objectives of the new structure, but now Markus DuesmanCEO of Audi, assures that the objective is to make the brand with the four rings world champion.
“We are not going to enter Formula 1 on a whimwe want to show what we can do,” Duesman told ‘Der Spiegel.
The head of Audi assures that they want to repeat in Formula 1 the success they have had in other categories, such as world resistance wave formula e: “We have done everything possible to win in all the championships in which we have participated. Until now, we have always achieved it.”
Precedents do not invite optimism
Despite Audi’s heavy investment, recent history shows that new manufacturers take years to achieve good results. Sling returned from the hand of McLaren in 2015 and it took him seven seasons to win a World Cup, the one in 2021 with Red Bull. Renault He returned to Formula 1 in 2016, and his best result so far has been fourth position last season.
The most successful example is that of Mercedes, which has dominated practically the entire ‘hybrid era’, although the star team went four seasons without winning until in 2014 it won its first championship. With these precedents, everything indicates that Audi’s path to the top of Formula 1 will not be as easy as the Germans hope.
