Qatar could eventually buy majority Audi F1 stake

Audi’s new Formula 1 venture looks set to completely sidestep the financial crisis at Volkswagen.

It is emerging this week that, amid the ongoing VW crisis, Sauber’s new 100 percent owner Audi could be set to sell up to half of the F1 team for a tidy profit.

Osterreich newspaper reports that Audi’s purchase price of the Swiss-based Sauber team was 600 million euros.

And the rumoured sale-price of a minority share sale to Qatar’s sovereign wealth fund, potentially involving title sponsorship by Qatar Airways, could be worth a billion euros to Audi.

"Now Audi is coming (to Sauber)," former F1 supremo Bernie Ecclestone told Blick newspaper this week, "but in the current situation the Germans are perhaps not even unhappy that some people from Qatar are showing interest in the new project and want to get involved."

It is believed Audi F1’s deal with Qatar, on top of the Middle Eastern country’s existing part-ownership of the full Volkswagen Group, could be announced at the Qatar GP later this month.

"According to several media reports, the sheikhs are expected to invest up to 1 billion euros," confirmed the major German newspaper Bild.

"If Qatar were to acquire more than 50 percent, the official team name could even change."

Audi is yet to comment.

Italy’s La Gazzetta dello Sport also reported: "The investment should initially be a minority stake, without changes to the name or key faces of the team.

"But it is not excluded that in the future the fund will aim for the majority of the team, as well as the (Audi) engine factory" in Neuberg, Germany, the newspaper added.