German car manufacturer Audi, says Formula 1 is irrelevant to manufacturers who hope to gain information and technology to better their road cars.
Audi’s motorsport boss, Wolfgang Ullrich, believes Le Mans to be a better bet, given what the series has introduced to their road cars in the past.
“There’s a very good reason why we are not in F1. There’s no relevance to the road,” Ullrich told Car magazine.
“Audi has always been engaged in motorsport that’s relevant to our customers such as rallying and touring cars, which brought quattro, FSI and TFSI to our road cars,” he claimed.
“This is why in 1999 we decided against F1. Instead we decided to take on the greatest race in the world. We went for Le Mans.”
The German reeled off some impressive figures to prove his point, though many of the facts are attributed to the layout of many Le Mans circuits which are much faster than those in F1.
“Let me show you how – at Le Mans, one of our cars will cover 325 miles more than an F1 car will cover in an entire season, our average speed including pits stops will be 20mph higher than an F1 car and we will use 42% less fuel. You cannot argue with those figures.”
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