Audi… while waiting for Porsche!

While the file Porsche-Red Bull was clearly the most advanced in recent months, yet it was Audi which was the first of the two brands of the Volkswagen group to announce its arrival in F1. The officialization took place this Friday, ahead of the Belgian Grand Prix at Spa-Francorchamps. According to the information we have, Audi would in fact buy a majority of the shares in Sauber, Finn Rausing's team which operates in F1 behind the name Alfa Romeo. The Swedish owner should, however, retain a minority share in the structure. This could result in a ticket that could resemble what we experienced between 2006 and 2009, when the team was called BMW Sauber. 

This constitutes the first official step taken by Volkswagen towards F1. For several months, the Wolfsburg firm has never hidden its attraction for the queen discipline, but had set a sine qua none condition for joining the dance. She had warned, among other things, that it would only come if the F1 engine regulations tended towards electrification (+ 50% of electrical energy delivered compared to the current regulations) and if the MGU-H (thermal generator engine mounted on the turbo, a complex and expensive element) was removed. No formalization was expected from the Volkswagen board before the ratification of the 2026 engine regulations. That's good, the latter was officially announced mid-August and all the prerequisites laid down by Volkswagen have been respected. The FIA ​​and F1 know it: for the future of the discipline, it is necessary to be able to count on a large pool of engine manufacturers, while only Mercedes, Ferrari et Alpine supplied power units among manufacturers, since Honda's unofficial withdrawal. 

Porsche should buy 50% of the Red Bull team

Regarding Porsche, its return to F1, alongside Red Bull, is no longer in doubt. Moreover, the representatives of Audi, Markus Duesmann and Oliver Hoffmann, half-heartedly admitted the arrival of Porsche during the press conference... Official documents published in particular in Morocco by the Competition Council had somewhat betrayed the secret at the end of July: the Stuttgart brand is in fact preparing to buy 50% of the Red Bull team, in addition to becoming its engine manufacturer from 2026.

The partnership is win-win. For Porsche, it is the guarantee of being able to count on state-of-the-art facilities and exceptional know-how, since the Austrian team based in Milton Keynes (England) remains on a world champion title obtained with Max Verstappen, and should be getting a new one in a few weeks. Another clarification, revealed during Audi's press conference on Friday morning: in the event of Porsche's arrival, the two "cousin" brands would design their own engines separately, without sharing resources or data.

For Red Bull, it is a way of further solidifying the team, with a manufacturer involved in the adventure, but above all an excellent way of preparing for the future, while the boss of the energy drink brand Dietrich Mateschitz has today 78 years old today. Now that the FIA ​​has officially published its new engine regulations, there no longer remains any obstacle to an announcement of the Porsche-Red Bull tandem. But this should therefore take place after Audi's communication. 

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