[voyager]

Insiders at Audi and its parent, the Volkswagen Group, have revealed that Audi is set to abandon both Germany’s touring car championship (the DTM) and the iconic Le Mans 24 Hour race in favor of Formula One in 2016. In the 2000-2014 period only Bentley (in 2003, actually an enclosed Audi LM racer) and Peugeot (in 2009) succeeded in breaking Audi's hegemony.

Read more: http://www.autoexpress.co.uk/audi/89171/audi-to-join-f1-in-2016#ixzz3HF5ggK3Q

 

[Ruperts Trooper]

It's been known for a while that VAG has been working on a F1 engine so it's no surprise in one sense - both Audi and Porsche have Grand Prix history going way back and Audi came to sports car racing long after Porsche so it seems to make sense to use the Audi badge for this project - it may well be appropriate for Audi to "buy" an existing team to put their engine in, much like Mercedes-Benz did with Brawn initially.

Honda have already announced they'll be powering McLaren in 2015 and Cosworth have a F1 engine ready to go, originally slated for 2015 but now likely to be 2016 in the Gene Hass US team cars.

One has to question whether Renault has the heart to stay in F1, given that their uncompetitive engines need a redesign but rules prevent that - Ferrari is in the same position but their withdrawal is unthinkable.

So for 2016 we could have - Mercedes-Benz, Ferrari, Honda, Audi and Ford (aka Cosworth).

 

[chinamonty]

Why do you say Ford aka Cosworth. Ford sold Cosworth in 2004. Have they employed them to develop an engine on behalf of Ford?

 

[voyager]

Perhaps it was to be expected that Porsche is now to 'take over' Le Mans. Btw, in next week's Grand Prix of the U.S. two racing teams will not make their appearance because of financial difficulties: Marussia and Caterham.

 

[Ruperts Trooper]

Why do you say Ford aka Cosworth. Ford sold Cosworth in 2004. Have they employed them to develop an engine on behalf of Ford?

The Cosworth F1 engine is available to "anyone" - Ford has long history of getting it's badge onto Cosworth engines, not for free of course.
http://www.racecar-engineering.com/blogs/gravel-trap-is-ford-set-for-a-f1-return-in-2015/

 

[RedVee8]

I guess it makes sense to stop the duplication of having birth Audi & Porsche in the Le Mans cars.

 

[hydrogen]

Cadillac needs to build engines and chassis for Haas F1 by 2020.

 

[LetsRace]

Cadillac needs to build engines and chassis for Haas F1 by 2020.

F1 is incredibly expensive and I don't think it returns that much in an image point of view.

 

[Ruperts Trooper]

Cadillac needs to build engines and chassis for Haas F1 by 2020.

Have Cadillac ever built an engine that small?

Why would Haas F1 Team use someone with even less experience of F1 than themselves?

Mercedes-Benz used Ilmor to develop their engine and bought the successful Brawn team to aquire a car - for many years, Ferrari had their development centre in the UK which is the technical heart of F1.

 

[63GrandSport001]

I wonder if Cadillac would be better serve to go more into touring/GT racing....

With their new ATS V race car they will probably be able to race in GT3 racing in Europe, which I think would go a long way to expand their image in Europe.

 

[MalibuMan2010]

Cadillac races in the Pirelli World Challenge. Its rules (here) make the series faaaaar more relevant, not only for marketing, but for product R&D. I hope Cadillac stays. F1 is idiotic.

 

[Ruperts Trooper]

Cadillac races in the Pirelli World Challenge. Its rules (here) make the series faaaaar more relevant, not only for marketing, but for product R&D. I hope Cadillac stays. F1 is idiotic.

Pirelli World Challenge - another farcially named event that's a US domestic competition - like World Series with only American teams.

The term "world" means something different outside the US - no wonder Chevrolet and Cadillac have such problems going global.

 

[MalibuMan2010]

Pirelli World Challenge - another farcially named event that's a US domestic competition - like World Series with only American teams.

The term "world" means something different outside the US - no wonder Chevrolet and Cadillac have such problems going global.

Do you consider the following to be "US domestic competition"?

 

[Ruperts Trooper]

The cars may be international but the events in the championship are all US domestic - so no publicity value outside the US.

How's about entering the FIA WEC Endurance Championship, the FIA International Series or the FIA World Touring Car Championship.

 

[63GrandSport001]

Cadillac races in the Pirelli World Challenge. Its rules (here) make the series faaaaar more relevant, not only for marketing, but for product R&D. I hope Cadillac stays. F1 is idiotic.

PWC is a great series however sadly I have to agree with the tool, PWC has very limited visability outside of the US. Cadillac should stay in this series, though with GT3 cars being in the series now and the ATS Vr is sure to be built to those standards. It really opens them up to racing in GT3 series in Europe as well, which would go a long ways to making Cadillac more respectable in Europe.

Also it is silly when something is labeled a "world" series which only takes place in one region of the world. Though it isn't as bad as the world series made up of all US teams, as at least you can have non US entrants into the PWC. You know what they need to do is have a GT3 based racing series that have events in the North America, South America, Europe, Africa, the middle east, and Asia....... much like they tend to try in Formula one. Also no prototype classes please....

 

[RedVee8]

PWC is a great series however sadly I have to agree with the tool, PWC has very limited visability outside of the US. Cadillac should stay in this series, though with GT3 cars being in the series now and the ATS Vr is sure to be built to those standards. It really opens them up to racing in GT3 series in Europe as well, which would go a long ways to making Cadillac more respectable in Europe.

Also it is silly when something is labeled a "world" series which only takes place in one region of the world. Though it isn't as bad as the world series made up of all US teams, as at least you can have non US entrants into the PWC. You know what they need to do is have a GT3 based racing series that have events in the North America, South America, Europe, Africa, the middle east, and Asia....... much like they tend to try in Formula one. Also no prototype classes please....

Don't forget Australia.

 

[CaddyLac10]

Cadillac needs to build engines and chassis for Haas F1 by 2020.

What does Cadillac have to offer Haas in terms of expertise?

You have it backwards. If anything, Cadillac could seek the expertise of Haas to build a monocoque hybrid supercar.

I would not be surprised to see them link up. de Nysschen partnered Infiniti with Redbull. Haas could support a Cadillac LMP car.

 

[JerryL]

Camaro and Corvette are fully FIA Homologated for WORLD wide GT3 series....... In particular Corvette Z06R GT3 is very successful in Europe, Asia, Middle East, South America etc.

The cost of the FIA GT series is peanuts compared to F1.

 

[Ruperts Trooper]

Camaro and Corvette are fully FIA Homologated for WORLD wide GT3 series....... In particular Corvette Z06R GT3 is very successful in Europe, Asia, Middle East, South America etc.

The cost of the FIA GT series is peanuts compared to F1.

Seems to do best in drivers championships - but that success is normally given to the drivers.

 

[mchicha]

not true

https://twitter.com/Audi__Sport/status/526103398727565312