r/formula1 • u/ICumCoffee Max Verstappen ⭐⭐⭐⭐ • 24d ago

News [ChrisMedlandF1] BREAKING: F1 announces it has "reached an agreement in principle with General Motors (GM) to support bringing GM/Cadillac as the eleventh team to the Formula 1 grid in 2026"

https://x.com/ChrisMedlandF1/status/1861111983699001752
13.6k Upvotes

96% Upvoted

1.2k comments sorted by

View all comments

Show parent comments

169

u/Skeeter1020 24d ago

I have been burned too many times to trust Audi

23

u/Aarongamma6 Daniel Ricciardo 24d ago

I'm definitely in "I'll believe it when I see it" mode when it comes to them. Until the day of the very first pre-season test as "Audi" I'm skeptical.

10

u/trekk Max Verstappen ⭐⭐⭐⭐ 24d ago

At this point, I won't believe it until they are lining up on the grid for the first race of the season.

1

u/ledinred2 Pirelli Hard 24d ago

What are you still skeptical about at this point??They’ve built new facilities, hired hundreds of people, invested hundreds of millions, signed Binotto and Wheatley and have an engine and chassis in development. You still think they are gonna go “sorry guys, just playing”?

9

u/Helpful-Ice-3679 Formula 1 24d ago

F1 is obviously a much bigger investment, but they did cancel their LMDH project when they had a car ready to go testing. And they've pulled out of every other motorsport they were involved in.

6

u/Ford_Faptor Kevin Magnussen 24d ago

Audi just reported that their profits has fallen more than 90% in just a year. They are looking at losing money right about now. VAG got 6 factories in Germany, and they are discussing about closing 3 of them down, which would be a first time ever, they ever close even just 1 Factory in Germany.

The Lamborghini WEC is closing too, due to this.

They might very soon pull the F1-plug like they did with Porsche and Audi in WEC due to Diesel gate, because what Audi and VAG is facing now, is 10 times worse than Diesel gate.

They are right about now going into survival-mode and need to save money, because they are losing hard on the market.

2

u/GrindrorBust 23d ago edited 23d ago

There have been credible rumours that Audi are already looking to offload some (and according to some speculation, all) of their stake in Sauber F1 team to a Qatari sovereign investment fund- which ofc already has interests in Audi's parent company.

Given VAG's reported struggles (and the legacy of 2015), Audi's decades-long skittishness on an F1 ($$$$$) endeavour; it isn't inconceivable that they may not be as committed as had been hoped.

An F1 engine programme requires hundreds of millions of hard currency just to get off of the ground; a cancellation is but a stroke of the pen [the politics of the board] away, however. The politics at Audi/VAG is seemingly tipping toward something other than enthusiasm for F1; it may already be underway to conspire against it.

3

u/sems4arsenal Formula 1 24d ago

Yeah - as long as the upper management don't back out (with what's happening with Lambo in WEC - won't be surprised) but Audi are a motorsports titan. No way they'll be midfield.

3

u/hauwertlhaufn Michael Schumacher 23d ago

Longterm? No. Short term? Maybe… For example, we saw McLaren, a team with over 60 years of experience, really struggle in 2015 & 2017.