Audi boss Ullrich says no to F1

Audi has clearly rejected speculation its name might soon appear above a formula one garage door.

It has been reported for some time that the German carmaker’s parent Volkswagen could be interested in entering the sport as an engine supplier.

VW’s motor racing boss Kris Nissen said a month ago: "Within the group, for sure, (the branding) could be Audi, it could be Porsche and might also be Volkswagen."

But Audi’s sporting boss Wolfgang Ullrich is not interested, according to the German news agency SID.

"We believe formula one and Audi do not fit, so long as the technology has no relevance to the development of our production cars," he said.

Audi prototype sports cars finished first, second and third at the recent Le Mans 24 hour race, and the marque also competes in the premier German touring car series DTM.

"The technologies are closely related to those used by our clients, so they directly benefit from our motor racing. In F1 that is not currently the case," Ullrich insisted.

And despite recent and current efforts to reduce the costs in formula one, top teams still require more than EUR 150 million to be competitive.

But in DTM, the budgets are under about 30m, and "the new regulations for 2012 aim to reduce the budgets by about 50 per cent," he said.

"So, the DTM continues to be the benchmark in cost-versus-benefit," said Ullrich.