What Happens if Porsche and Audi Joins Formula One?
The two car makers are set for talks over new engine regulations. What happens next following Saturday’s meeting?
It was reported on Monday by Tobi Grüner of AMuS that the 2022 Formula One engine manufacturers (Mercedes, Red Bull, Ferrari and Renault) will all be meeting on July 3 to discuss the next generation of engine regulations.
The next gen of car designs haven’t even arrived yet and the teams have already started preparations to discuss the next huge evolution of the sport.
The engines play a massive role in the current F1. Introduced in 2014, Mercedes have dominated the V6 turbo hybrid era in large part thanks to a significantly more impressive engine.
While the 2022 rule changes will be an opportunity for teams to move up the pecking order, it won’t be until 2025 that the new engine regulations could potentially shake-up the sport’s power dynamics entirely.
But, most interestingly, those four aforementioned engine suppliers are not the only ones set to attend the upcoming meeting.
Porsche and Audi are also reportedly prepared to take part in what will no doubt be a high profile congregation.
But, what could this mean for the future of F1? Well, let’s take a look at the options:
1. New Partnerships
Both Porsche and Audi may partner up with existing constructors to become de facto works teams.
For example, McLaren, Alfa Romeo Sauber, Aston Martin, Williams and Haas are all customer teams on the current grid.
Of these, only one has won a Grand Prix during the turbo-hybrid era. Aston Martin claimed victory in Sakhir in 2020, but even that required a massive mess up by their own engine supplier Mercedes.
It’s very difficult for a customer team to compete with a works team simply because the works team will have more information on how their designs all come together, and can directly build their engine around the car. Whereas customer teams have to build their car around the engine they’re given.
Of course, sometimes the works team loses to its customer — McLaren beat Renault in 2019 and 2020. However, the independence of being a works team will certainly be appealing to engineers and designers.
Aston Martin will be unlikely to cease their partnership with Mercedes given the investment the owners of the German manufacturers have put into the team, but McLaren may be interested in becoming a works team again — although the Honda deal in 2015 is better left unmentioned.
Red Bull may, too, be interested in partnering with Porsche or Audi. They will take over the reins of the Honda engine from 2022, and they are also investing into a factory for their new engine division.
However, the leap to creating their own engines for 2025 is a big one and they may want to partner alongside an existing car manufacturer.
Haas and Williams have both increased their level of partnership with Ferrari and Mercedes recently, but 2025 is still four years away and a lot can change in that time. Perhaps an expansion into a more independent life awaits the current backmarker teams.
2. New Teams
This option is probably less likely than option one, but still should be considered. There is the potential that Porsche and Audi enter F1 and set up brand new teams.
F1 has had 10 teams since the exit of Caterham in 2014. The most recent new entrant was Haas in 2016. However, F1 did have 12 teams as recently as 2012.
Joining the sport can be very expensive, there is currently a £200m entry fee for any new constructor. There is the possibility that those fees may be waived to entice new engine manufacturers into the sport, but even with the new budget costs coming in it is still a very expensive decision.
If that fee isn’t to be waived then perhaps buying an existing team out completely may be the cheaper alternative. This isn’t quite the same as a partnership. In this scenario, for example, Audi buys Haas and Haas no longer exists as an F1 entity.
3. Nothing New Happens at all!
Of course these are still very preliminary discussions. The fact that there are two new car makers involved in these discussions is promising. It is also very interesting that Honda are not reported to be taking part in Saturday’s meeting.
Audi and Porsche both have a great motor racing history, but neither have competed in modern F1 at all. Both joining the sport would be a very healthy next step, the more engine suppliers F1 has the more diverse it can be which can only be good.
It wasn’t so long ago that the likes of Honda, BMW and Toyota were also in the sport and who knows, maybe all three can still come back someday soon.
But, with 2025 still so far away and the talks still very early they may also still come to nothing.
There have been rumours that Porsche and Audi could enter F1 in the past. In fact, Porsche reportedly built an engine in 2019 with a target of joining the sport in 2021, but that didn’t come to pass.
We won’t know any more details until the aftermath of this weekend’s meeting, but it is a promising next step in the growth of the sport.
