Multiple media reports have confirmed that Audi Sport is to exit Formula E at the end of the 2021 season, this hard on the heels of their post 2020 exit from DTM as a factory effort, with a future-focused, it seems on both an EV entry into the Dakar Rally in 2022 followed by the much-anticipated return to top-class sportscar racing in 2023.
It’s quite a todo list then for Audi Sport GmbH Managing Director Julius Seebach who was announced just this morning as also taking over the management of Audi Motorsport from December 1, 2020, the baton handed over from Dieter Gass who will move within the group top another as yet unannounced senior post.
“We are intensively preparing to enter the new sports prototype category LMDh with its highlight races, the Daytona 24 Hours and Le Mans 24 Hours,” said Julius Seebach.
“The most important message for our fans is that motorsport will continue to play an important role at Audi.”
Audi has been represented for some time in the technical working groups for the converged top tier of sportscar racing, joining the discussions with rule makers and other manufacturers as the drive for convergence between IMSA and ACO regulations came into sharper focus.
Whilst there is no formal announcement yet from Audi, it is clear that they must be added now to the list of very strong prospects for LMDH programmes which already includes fellow VAG group company Porsche, and Honda, the former having announced a formal internal evaluation of the new class, the latter having clear intent to field a successor programme to their current DPi programme.
The potential for the LMDH platform to encourage a sustainable customer marketplace could well be another reason why the Audi Sport operation, which already features a strong global customer support network as well as a number of very capable privateer partner and customer teams, would be looking towards it in a positive light.
That aspect of LMDH is understood to hold particular appeal as major manufacturers come under pressure to find more sustainable major programmes (in both environmental and economic terms) in the wake of the economic pressures on the industry as a result of the COVID19 pandemic.
If confirmed it will mark the return of the Audi brand to the top tier of prototype racing for the first time since the marque withdrew from LMP1 at the end of the 2016 FIA WEC season in the wake of the Dieselgate scandal.
