words: Bill, photos: Audi AG
I woke up this morning with an explosion of news that Audi and BMW were buying McLaren: BMW buying the car segment and Audi buying the motorsport division i.e. F1. Just Google “Audi, McLaren” and you will see many articles proclaiming this. BMW stated earlier that they were not interested in McLaren Automotive but rumors still stated that Audi was “open for discussion”. Audi Sport fans have been teased with Audi entering Formula 1 for years and with the brand reentering Le Mans in 2023, there was hope for Formula 1. But the hype was quickly squashed by no other than McLaren themselves.
And from the Audi side, just two hours ago, an Autoblog article states that Audi denies McLaren purchase report. So there’s that. Will Audi or Volkswagen Group ever join Formula 1? We know Porsche would like to…as recently as November 3rd from uk.motor1.com, Porsche’s motorsports boss stated “the factors required for the manufacturer to join Formula 1 are “coming true”, but it cannot “wait too long” to make its final decision.” We’ll see.
