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Originally Posted by knighty
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I am having a hard time understanding how this might work. Particularly this part from the article above (my bold)...
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Juttner and Audi Sport boss Dr. Wolfgang Ullrich both said at the time that the German manufacturer would not be able to continue technical support of the powertrain, which according to Durheimer’s statement, appears to have changed.
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Especially given announcements for the Audi withdrawal. I would assume that the decision was not taken lightly and the scope of that would have been defined prior to the announcement. Which I assume would include the engine development resources. But... lets say that they are changing their mind, or at least open to an alternative arrangement.
Who pays for this? Clearly there is the budget of the day to day operations of the team, etc. But if (as that article mentions) includes a potential customer version of the diesel engine (sans hybrid), there will clearly be some development required to package it for the non-hybrid class or at the minimum coordinate with whoever would take up the challenge. Someone would have to pay for that. Is Audi now going to fund a diesel engine program for LMP1? I can't see that given to a degree that they are both moving away from diesel AND the PR effort of "we are stopping this to save money" due to the emissions fiasco. Or, it could be funded by outside sponsor such as it was when McLaren paid Porsche to develop the F1 engine years ago. That was a "for profit" enterprise for Porsche. But who is going to pay to effectively take the entire Audi LMP1 program, extract the hybrid from that solution, and then run it in a class that is almost non-existent when it comes to competitors? Even if it did work, might it be an expensive solution for that problem?
Plus you then have what would appear to be... a fully manufacture sourced chassis and powertrain in the non-manufacture class... with potential full manufacture powertrain support? Nail in coffin for a nearly dead class?
But lets consider the more logical approach of just using the chassis as a basis for a privateer effort with some other powertrain solution (would be insane to use anything but petrol). It still has the issues of it being designed for hybrid class plus the smaller diesel fuel tank. Is it not just as likely it would be cheaper to use some other solution to get into that class of racing than trying to make the Audi work in a class it wasn't designed for?
I think this is a huge pipe dream by everyone involved. Unless there is someone crazy enough to burn truckloads of money to make it happen.
Richard