Formula 1 welcomes Audi with open arms, but several experts are predicting a difficult start for the car manufacturer in 2026.
“Building an engine within three years under the existing cost limit is extremely ambitious,” said former pilot Christian Danner to the “Donaukurier”: “I’m pretty sure that you will get into extraordinary difficulties to build a competitive engine up and running in time for the 2026 season.”
Audi Chief Technology Officer Oliver Hoffmann was relaxed when announcing the entry on Friday and referred to the complex electric drive train that Audi is using in the Dakar Rally.
“The bar is brutally high in Formula 1”
Danner sees in this statement a “distance from reality, not to say unrealistic. Because in Formula 1 the bar is so brutally high that I have no solution as to how it should work, how to do it in time. “
But he keeps his fingers crossed “for I want to see a good, successful Audi, of course,” said Danner.
Red Bull team boss Christian Horner was a little more diplomatic on the sidelines of the Belgian Grand Prix (Sunday 3 p.m. / Sky).
“Starting from scratch is a huge challenge,” explained the Brit.
Knowledge deficit on Mercedes, Ferrari and Renault
Due to the budget cap, it will also be “difficult” for new participants to catch up on the knowledge deficit of the established engine manufacturers Mercedes, Ferrari and Renault – even if they also have to design a new drive train for the 2026 season that is cheaper than the previous one and in which the electrical component increased to 50 percent.
In this context, Horner also considers his team to be “beginners”. The engine department of Red Bull (Red Bull Powertrains), founded in 2021, must also design and produce its own drive unit for the first time in 2026.
World Champion Max Verstappen’s team will still be using Honda’s technologically frozen aggregates until the end of 2025.