Audi’s Exit from Le Mans Will Send Shock Waves through the Sport
Blame Dieselgate. Blame increasingly uncompetitive technology. Blame time.
The news of Audi’s upcoming departure from its long reign atop global sports-car racing was as shocking as it was inevitable. The reasoning behind the withdrawal was painfully Germanic: It’s a calculated business move and nothing more. And even if it was inevitable, the loss of Audi from the FIA World Endurance Championship (WEC) is on par with McLaren leaving Formula 1, Ford leaving NASCAR, or Ganassi leaving IndyCar. Make no mistake, this is a big deal.
The same machinelike efficiency that Audi introduced to the 24 Hours of Le Mans in 1999 was applied by its board of directors?and its accounting department?to forecasting its future at the French endurance classic. With a rumored annual investment of a half-billion dollars to consider, the numbers seemingly stopped making sense for the brand. The first ax started its slow and silent fall when Volkswagen’s Dieselgate scandal broke in September 2015. The Volkswagen Group didn’t know the size of the fine at the time, but it knew its bottom line would take a massive hit at some point. It finally arrived on Tuesday.
Coming less than 24 hours after the announcement of a $15 billion buyback settlement in North America alone, the decision on Wednesday to cleave one of the VW Group’s two most expensive racing projects from the books was the inevitable response. Porsche’s Le Mans gasoline-fueled program, which is said t...
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