Audi

[Daniel]

But maybe not a clever choice. How much success have Skoda achieved in rallying...pretty close to nothing! So there is room for AUDI succeed if they want to.

What does "room" have to do with it? Seat and Skoda had all the room they needed and were crap. Do you think VAG is going to risk tarnishing their crown jewel (Audi) and having them fail in the WRC? Audi is not in motorsport to compete and be an also ran. Audi's philosophy is to go into a series and win at all costs. The WRC is too competitive for them so they don't compete in it now.

I move that words like Audi and Lancia be banned from this forum unless people are discussing old cars. People have been going on about Audi returning ever since I joined this forum in 2001 and people have been going on about Audi returning all the time. VAG dipped their toes in with the Skoda and got burnt bigtime. VAG won't come in with an Audi unless Skoda suddenly starts winning with their S2000 car.

[Koz]

All their rivals on the car market (Ferrari, Mercedes and BMW) are in F1, but I still don't expect AUDI to go down the F1 road ever.

Now this sparked something in my brain... (Bad sign)
Would it not be in Audi's best interests to buy an F1 team, call it Lamborghini F1 and have that race against their rivals, it would help both Lamborghini and Audi, wouldn't it? (If they had success that is)

[MikeD]

Now this sparked something in my brain... (Bad sign)
Would it not be in Audi's best interests to buy an F1 team, call it Lamborghini F1 and have that race against their rivals, it would help both Lamborghini and Audi, wouldn't it? (If they had success that is)

Hi Koz,

I don't think you can justify a formula 1 budget for the Lamborghini brand. Lamborghini already had a 1 year spell in F1 in 1991(?) and it was a disaster. The brand is too small and Lamborghini's biggest market is in the US that no longer has an F1 GP.

I think VAG has considered F1 many times but has come to the conclussion that it's too expensive despite the marketing posibilities.

On the positive side Renault managed to win 4 titles with 1/4 of the budget of Ferrari and McLaren, so it can be done.

On the negative side, the results from Honda and Toyota might convince VAG to stay away and maybe...hopefully...they will have a second look at WRC once they adobt the marketing values and learnings of F1.

[MikeD]

]MikeD: Don't think so since the people were practicly the same. Skoda Motorsport boss in Fabia era was Martin Muhlmeier from Audi.

I didn't know. Thanks for the info.

]I only hope that now with completely different people behind the S2000 it will be better...

Yes, let's hope so.

[pantealex]

Lamborghini was in F1 in early 90´s, it was not part of VAG then.