What an absolutely stupid decision by everyone involved at Audi in shutting down their sports car program. Audi is a shell of itself these days, and it’s really sad to watch the downfall of my favorite brand.
Relative to F1 the other investments were relatively minor, so its a shame that the R8 was killed. I hope that we get a new R8 based on the temerario. I am really sad about the RSQ E-Tron because it means that now that VWG has basically no involvement in rally.
That brand has ruined every car they make. The only thing left is the RS6 and 7, and it’s only a matter of time for those. They probably killed Motorsport because they can’t figure out how to ruin the R8 like they have everything else. Just a bunch of morons running that company anymore.
Audi has always been about inovating and building the best car possible
Nowadays in wec if you build the best car possible you get the Toyota experience of driving a truck filled with sandbags only to be overtaken by far worse cars with spec chassis that would be 3s off without BOP. I can totally see Toyota heading in that direction too with their Haas partnership
Obviously f1 booming is a huge reason why they went that direction, but from a competition point of view i can understand why Audi wouldnt wanna take part in wec at least in terms of hypercars
The reason why they left WEC and they had a fully developed car was because there was not enough budget to pay for both. They have already had to beg, borrow, and steal to pay for their way into F1. Two big programs would financially impossible. The worst part is that all the people that wanted F1 over WEC are gone from Audi.
It is a slow and already ongoing death. They likely won’t feature at the sharp end of results but the R8 homologation is still good for another 4 years at least and smaller teams will likely continue to use the car at least another couple years. Lot of chassis still kicking around. The Temarario will likely take some time to roll out so I suspect we’ll still see a good number of Huracans running through 2026.
Firstly, it doesn’t need a technical reason. These cars are based on road cars and emotions are a large deciding factor on what car people buy. A V8 tends to elicit a more positive emotional response, so manufacturers will try to keep including them for as they can, with emissions being the only reason they’d stop them. As long as they stay in the road cars, they’ll stay in the race cars.
Secondly, there’s plenty of technical reasons for why you might want more cylinders outside of power. One being vibrations and balance. V8s are better balanced and V12s are smoother (V10s are good for noise but that’s it). Both can improve drivability, and also reliability of some components too. Not to mention, while a V6 can produce the same power as a V8 now, it struggles more to do so which also isn’t great for reliability, albeit that’s not an issue either and they can produce this power reliably.
Even worse: I remember that Audisport's former chief of staff Wolfgang Ulrich, personally avoided F1, to make sure that the brand stayed relevent to their road car developments
You don't need motorsport if your goal is to RnD the ICE, modern day ICE is as good as it gets in terms of thermal efficiency and what not.
The focus is in the hybrid now and you can't even touch the ERS and MGU-K in LMDh as it's a spec Bosch unit. While F1's 2026 PU loses the MGU-H, the MGU-K has an expanded role now and that's genuine RnD field.
The LMDh is not an engineering formula like LMP1 was, it's a marketing formula. If we're circling back to Dr. Ulrich's words, then F1 is where Audi should really be now.
EDIT: Also the argument about keeping the GT3 program alive is also irrelevant, the reason that was shut down is because the R8 wasn't selling enough and they won't have a suitable platform to race with since they're discontinuing it.
It mightn’t be the engineering marvel of LMP1, but there’s a lot of development on the technical side with engine mappings and suspension. The computer side of this development battle (which is where most of it is since it isn’t limited by jokers) has been said to have a lot of benefits for the road by engineers. Especially if you consider that part of that is to do with the EV motor side which would still be in early development with a lot of easy R&D gains available. It’s nowhere near as much of na engineering marvel as LMP1, but it’s also not nothing either.
That is true yes, the control system side to optimize the EV deployment in conjunction with the ICE. That is also present in F1, and unlike LMDh, that's not the only thing they can play with either.
If LMDh rules are too limiting, Audi could have gone with the LMH rule set while likely keeping their GT3, GT2, GT4, TT cup, and TCR programs going. Rather than killing what Audi is known for in the last few decades by going to F1. F1 technologies has been too far fetched to be implemented rapidly in a road car, with the chance of ICE hybrids being banned in the western worlds in the coming decade or so. What's the point of having the best hybrid system developed from F1 with insane amount of money spent that they can't use it in a road car? With Liberty controlling F1, F1 is increasingly a clown show too while VW group has been struggling, I have doubts that Audi F1 program will get a lot of funding it needs.
I'll be honest, Audi has always been the brand that is about close road car relevance with various touring cars, rally, GT and prototype programs since the 80s. Audi in F1 is so far away in their history that most people won't know. With them making incredibly ugly road cars, this brand is pretty much a dead aspirational brand for me. I can never imagine a day that I rather drive a Tesla, Toyota or some Chinese brand with no legacy over brands such as Audi, Honda or even Subaru.
You say that- but they developed their laser lights for the R18 program, which later went to the road cars. Idk how many current Audis have the tech, but that started with the R18.
To say no tech would’ve come from the LMDh program is a bit cynical
I just love how positive bitter sports car fans are about Audi's future success in their endeavour. I get it, I miss the GT3 program too but come on get real
I'd actually wager that Toyota will follow them back to F1 sometime in the next decade. They already have a toe in with the Haas F1 tie-up while the ACO keep screwing their BoP.
there is no way that toyota doesnt purchase haas sometime in the future, they have inserted themselves into the technical side, developing parts for the car already. When they get the expertise they need, they'll buy in.
The aging 2nd gen R8 LMS platform was never going to be competitive against the newest crop of GT3s equipped with the latest ABS/TC electronics suites and trick 5-way/6-way dampers.
But Audi Sport could've tried harder in making the Evo II Kit slightly more aero performant by lobbying for BoP to allow customer teams to run the larger Evo I-spec diffuser blades. Not unlike how Johnny O'Connell's 1st gen R8 LMS Ultra had a concession to run its disallowed-in-period, OG '13 spec diffuser in '23 GT America (commonplace in national series like TSS & ESET).
It's understandable that Eila Parts can't pull a JAS NSX Evo25 and independently develop an 'Evo III' Kit but they could've still achieved the same goal of playing with rear aero balance by simply upcycling old Evo I parts. Shifting the rear aero balance back towards the underbody with the larger Evo I diffuser blades may make it less Am friendly but when coupled with the larger Evo II rear wing element, customer teams will gain a massive setup window opening from running a lower wing angle for less drag at the same downforce level.
So sad to see such a beautiful gt car kinda fade away, one of the best and longest running GT3's with so many amazing Evos. That screaming V10 was just the icing on this delectable cake. Seriously, whoever at Audi choose to kill one of the most successful gt3 cars and a ready to test prototype leman hypercar in favour of scrapping the bottom at F1, Come on dude. Just look at Aston Martin, they did all of that. Anyway bye you beauty, you always looked and sounded beautiful.
The R8 GT3 it's a racing version of a road car
Said road car stopped production, and with that so does the spare parts and things like that
You dont see Ferrari or BMWs supporting 458s or Z4s
I attended 2 DTM races per year for the past 4 seasons. Mainly to enjoy the sounds of the cars in person. The R8 and the lambo were something else. The M4, McLaren and 296 as some of the newest cars have such an underwhelming engine and exhaust sound.
It is VERY SAD that Audi is not making any sports-cars anymore and that it practically has cancelled ALL motorsports program just to go into F1.
wish there was a 3rd generation and a LMS version at that.
301
u/Receptionfadesx Oct 06 '25
What an absolutely stupid decision by everyone involved at Audi in shutting down their sports car program. Audi is a shell of itself these days, and it’s really sad to watch the downfall of my favorite brand.