Audi will not continue as an official team within Formula E after the 2021 season. The German brand will focus its efforts, from that moment on, on the Dakar Rally. This has been communicated in an official letter issued a few minutes ago. Therefore, they will abandon the competition where they have been present since 2017.
In this way, the brand with the four rhombuses will return to the world of rallying, but with a 100% electric prototype. The machine will have an electric transmission with a high voltage battery and a high efficiency power converter. In this way, Audi becomes the first manufacturer to develop a concept for the Dakar.
“We want to continue to give value to our slogan ‘led by technology‘ in international high-level motorsports in the future, and to develop innovative technologies for our production cars. The toughest rally in the world is the perfect setting for this,” he said. Markus Duesmann, Chairman of the Management Board and Member of the Board for Technical Development and Product Lines of Audi AG.
Despite their exit from Formula E at the end of the seventh season, they will maintain the engine support program. From the 2019-2020 season they deliver their power unit to the Virgin Racing team. On the other hand, Audi has announced that they are preparing to enter the new category of LMDh, which comprises the iconic races of the 24 Hours of Daytona and the 24 hours of Le Mans.
Let us remember that, in the eighties, the German brand revolutionized the World Rally Championship with the Audi Quattro, creating shortly after one of the most special machines in our sport, the S1. Could the arrival of electrical systems benefit the brand’s return to the WRC? We will soon know.
