The latest piece of big news out of the Formula 1 world is that Audi, who has dominated Le Mans Prototype racing over the last 15 years, is looking to step into the sport by the 2016 season. We thought that timing was a little off when we first got wind of the rumors, and according to Audi boss Wolfgang Ulrich, we were right.
“There is no decision that we are going in that direction,” Ulrich told Eurosport. “Audi has a motorsport programme that at the moment is based on the World Endurance Championship and the DTM, and we are working on the cars for next season. There is no other programme.”
The rumors surfaced when Audi and Volkswagen group insiders told Autoexpress the automaker is destined to abandoned its WEC and DTM efforts in favor of racing in Formula 1. The company also recently picked up former Ferrari F1 boss Stefano Domenicali, who spent almost all of his time at Ferrari managing their motorsports and F1 efforts, adding more fuel to the fire. Ulrich denied they hired Domenicali to head its F1 efforts and refused to say what position he will fill.
“Yes, he has joined Audi, but we haven’t said yet what his job will be; no, he will not be involved in motorsport,” he said.
Although Ulrich killed any hopes that Audi would enter F1 in the short term, he didn’t flat out deny that the automaker was interested in entering the sport, either.
“There is nothing decided,” he told Eurosport.
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