Mark Hughes on Audi and Porsche’s situation

British journalist Mark Hughes talks about the difficult situation in which two divisions of the Volkswagen concern, which aspire to enter Formula 1, find themselves. And if in the case of Audi the outlook is more or less clear, then the same cannot be said about Porsche.

While Audi is already on its way to its F1 goal, Porsche falters and the intense rivalry between the two sister brands only adds to the intrigue.

Audi has already confirmed that the company’s partner, with which it will come to the world championship in 2026, is Sauber, but the question of what will happen to the Porsche project in Formula 1 is still up in the air. And this is not as innocent a question as it may seem at first glance, and corporate interests, jealousy and rivalry are intertwined here.

It is important to note that Audi is going to acquire a controlling stake in Sauber and create a real works team, as it is not just about a technical partnership, but about organizing a full-fledged division of the company.

The Neuburg engine factory, headed by Adam Baker, an experienced Australian engineer who once worked in Formula 1 at BMW, already employs 200 specialists. In general, this will be a full-fledged factory project and the parent company’s participation in it will be even more noticeable than in the case of Mercedes (the Stuttgart concern owns only a third of the team’s shares).

Porsche also wants to create a real works team, and it is for this reason that they did not agree on a collaboration with Red Bull Racing: the leadership of the Milton Keynes team did not like the desire of the German side to take control of all processes.

In September, when it became clear that negotiations with Red Bull had stalled, Porsche issued a statement that read in part: “They have always been based on the premise that the partnership should be based on the principles of equality, not just the delivery of engines, but also working together with the team, but they could not agree on that.

As the engine regulations have already been approved, a racing class like Formula 1 will still be attractive to Porsche, so we will continue to monitor the development of the situation.”

For the same reason, due to differing views on the problem of joint management of the team, Audi at one point failed to reach an agreement with McLaren. It is also unlikely that Porsche management will succeed, and so the company is left with only two possible options: try to take control of Williams or AlphaTauri.

However, this company has another problem: unlike Audi, Porsche does not develop its own power plant, nor does it have the necessary production facilities.

Either the VW group decides that Audi will supply its engines to Porsche (this is possible, as the new head of the concern, Hans-Dieter Pötsch, previously led Porsche – but this inevitably raises a very acute problem of brand prestige), or Porsche in a hurry to order, they will begin to invest in the establishment of their own engine building department and acquire the necessary and extremely expensive equipment, incl. trial condition.

Such a scenario cannot be ruled out, although 2026 is just around the corner and it is almost impossible to realize a power station in the remaining time. However, Porsche is an exceptional company and there is no reason to doubt their motivation and determination to succeed.

Although Audi and Porsche are brands of the VW group, they are independent companies and there is fierce competition between them. Formally, the latter is considered a more prestigious brand, but if the engines with the Audi logo are installed on Porsche racing cars, it can be assumed that it will be very inconvenient.

In addition, the power plant, which is being developed by Audi engine builders, is made on the basis of a prototype developed by Porsche, but in 2016 this research program was frozen, after which most specialists moved to Audi.

Whether Porsche will somehow be able to solve the dilemma, the future will tell, but the problem itself is very curious. Two of the most successful Formula 1 teams of the past decade, Red Bull Racing and Mercedes, are not run by car manufacturers. They have no influence at all on Red Bull and in the case of Mercedes the control is limited to the financial sector.

In 2005-2006, when Renault won the championship twice with Fernando Alonso, these successes were achieved by the British racing team from Enstone led by Flavio Briatore, a hired manager, and the French company supplied only the engines.

Now Audi and Porsche individually want to follow the path that BMW and Toyota once embarked on, but never succeeded in…