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Written by Vijay Pattni
Wolfgang Ullrich that"s Dr Ullrich to you spent 23 years at the sharp end of Audi"s motorsport division. The man practically turned Le Mans into his own personal playground, helping the team win 13 outright victories in the toughest endurance race of them all.All the more surprising then, when we found out last year that Audi was to cancel its WEC participation in favour of a move to the burgeoning Formula E series. A shock announcement indeed: consider that at the time, 2017"s LMP1 car was nearly complete, and contracts with drivers and so forth had already been signedOfficially, the move to the electric championship fits Audi"s strategy of its ever-expanding electric car range, and traditionally motorsport has always been the proving ground for road-going technology. Cynics might argue the VW Group"s diesel scandal played a part, too.In any case, Dr Ullrich"s reasoning is that it"s just too damn expensive. He"s now retired his successor is Dieter Gass but still has lots to say from his time spearheading Audi"s time in the WEC."If you look in the mirror you can always say why didn"t we see that coming"," he laughs. "Maybe we should have seen it earlier we discussed it often but at the end it was difficult to find something that solved the problem."The costs were just getting too high. Realistically, whatever we discussed the budget for the next year again we needed a little bit more money, and we never came to the point to say we now have it on a level, let"s keep it here"."He notes how the idea to alleviate the cost burden "was always there", but a solution was hard to come by. Especially when you"re winning."If you have been on that [high] level of technology, and you explained to your bosses it is because you want to prove that on the highest level of technology we are competitive, how do you then tell them, let"s try it on a lower level of technology?!"Driving Audi"s LMP1 car - full story hereConsider also, that the three main competitors at one of the WEC"s peaks Audi, Toyota and Porsche all famously deployed different technological concepts, but were mere inches apart on the track. And tech of course, is one of Audi"s brand signatures. "This was always the brand key. It"s just that at the end, WEC got too expensive, and it was difficult to see, do we get more out of that compared to what we put in? This was difficult to achieve," he adds.
Date written: 13 Dec 2017
More of this article on the Top gear website
ID: 10265
Wolfgang Ullrich that"s Dr Ullrich to you spent 23 years at the sharp end of Audi"s motorsport division. The man practically turned Le Mans into his own personal playground, helping the team win 13 outright victories in the toughest endurance race of them all.All the more surprising then, when we found out last year that Audi was to cancel its WEC participation in favour of a move to the burgeoning Formula E series. A shock announcement indeed: consider that at the time, 2017"s LMP1 car was nearly complete, and contracts with drivers and so forth had already been signedOfficially, the move to the electric championship fits Audi"s strategy of its ever-expanding electric car range, and traditionally motorsport has always been the proving ground for road-going technology. Cynics might argue the VW Group"s diesel scandal played a part, too.In any case, Dr Ullrich"s reasoning is that it"s just too damn expensive. He"s now retired his successor is Dieter Gass but still has lots to say from his time spearheading Audi"s time in the WEC."If you look in the mirror you can always say why didn"t we see that coming"," he laughs. "Maybe we should have seen it earlier we discussed it often but at the end it was difficult to find something that solved the problem."The costs were just getting too high. Realistically, whatever we discussed the budget for the next year again we needed a little bit more money, and we never came to the point to say we now have it on a level, let"s keep it here"."He notes how the idea to alleviate the cost burden "was always there", but a solution was hard to come by. Especially when you"re winning."If you have been on that [high] level of technology, and you explained to your bosses it is because you want to prove that on the highest level of technology we are competitive, how do you then tell them, let"s try it on a lower level of technology?!"Driving Audi"s LMP1 car - full story hereConsider also, that the three main competitors at one of the WEC"s peaks Audi, Toyota and Porsche all famously deployed different technological concepts, but were mere inches apart on the track. And tech of course, is one of Audi"s brand signatures. "This was always the brand key. It"s just that at the end, WEC got too expensive, and it was difficult to see, do we get more out of that compared to what we put in? This was difficult to achieve," he adds.
Date written: 13 Dec 2017
More of this article on the Top gear website
ID: 10265
