Audi is willing to cede a stake in the team to a Qatari fund

Audi will not make its debut in Formula 1 until 2026, but it appears that the German company’s management is already planning to sell part of the shares of its factory team to Qatar’s sovereign wealth fund.

According to Auto Motor und Sport, this could be announced during the race weekend in Qatar. in just three weeks. Apparently, Middle Eastern investors will get less than 50% of the team’s shares, and Audi will retain control of the project.

The company itself has not yet responded to these rumors, although they do point to one thing: Audi needs additional sources of financing for its Formula 1 program, according to experts from the British publication The Race.

According to their estimates, the takeover of the Swiss Sauber team cost Audi $600 million, and the costs of internal development of the power plant are also in the nine figures.

At the same time, the entire VW Group, to which this company belongs, is currently in a fever, and the German concern is pursuing a strict cost-cutting policy, which includes the closure of the Brussels plant, where the premium electric crossover Q8 e – will be produced at the end of February next year and more than three thousand employees may be put on the street.

In such circumstances, finding additional sources of funding is highly desirable, if not necessary. At the same time, Qatar’s public investment fund is already spending a lot of money on organizing the national Grand Prix, with Qatar Airways acting as title sponsor, so a commercial alliance with Audi seems a fairly logical step.

This practice is becoming the norm for Formula 1, especially since March this year, the McLaren Group is fully owned by Bahrain’s sovereign wealth fund Mumtalakat, and Audi follows a similar pattern, although in their case the size of the transaction is more modest.