GT: from next year more support with money and drivers for Audi customer teams

There is no official press release yet, but customer teams and partners have already been informed today that Audi Sport customer racing will stop supporting customer teams with a budget and factory drivers at the end of this year. Audi’s board made the decision yesterday. Technical support and supply of parts for customers’ sports cars (R8 LMS GT2, GT3 and GT4 and RS 3 LMS) are guaranteed for years to come, as required by law.

Text: René de Boer (Twitter: @renedeboer)
Photos: PR

Everything at Audi goes to the Formula 1 project, where the brand will appear from 2026 via the Sauber team, which is taken over successively. According to reports, the Dakar project will also not continue after the already promised participation next year. Previously, the brand had stopped its factory entry in DTM and Formula E.

That the sporting activities of customers in GT and TCR racing would also suffer the consequences of the strategy followed seemed certain for some time. There has even been talk of shutting down Audi Sport customer racing altogether, but that hasn’t happened yet, as tech support will continue. However, in all likelihood, no further development of the cars will take place, while the loan of factory drivers to teams for, for example, the TCR World Tour, the 24-hour races at the Nürburgring and Spa-Francorchamps and The GT World Challenge Endurance Cup will be over from next year. The list of drivers from Audi Sport customer races will be deleted.

The list of Audi Sport drivers, here in the front row at Spa, will be scrapped at the end of this year

Few changes for the many customer teams that use Audis in Asia or the USA, for example, but the reduction in factory activities to support customer sport is of course a bad sign.

The fact that the production of the Audi R8 is coming to an end this year and that no direct successor is planned would also be linked to the decision taken. Speaking to colleagues at Sportscar365.com, Chris Reinke, Audi Sport customer racing manager, said there are ideas for new projects, but they cannot be discussed until there are no concrete decision on the table. This is certainly not Reinke’s commitment…

Chris Reinke celebrated very recently winning the Coupe du Roi at Francorchamps, for the manufacturer with the most cars at the top of the classification

Many teams and riders saw the storm coming and considered other options. Even the Abt team, associated with Audi since time immemorial, entered a Lamborghini in this year’s 24 Hours of Nürburgring. Drivers such as René Rast, Robin Frijns and Kelvin van der Linde left the Audi camp and partly found refuge at BMW, where the long-standing Audi team WRT also moved.