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Photo by: Audi<\/p>\n
The playbook has been thrown out the window for all the other teams heading into this season. Their drivers and engineers will have to devise entirely new racing strategies, and we could see all teams learning how to maximize the new car’s potential to their advantage.<\/p>\n
Audi is a works team. That means it fully controls its own destiny. Audi took over the Sauber facilities in Switzerland, which is where the chassis is built. The Audi F1 tech center is in England, and Audi will build the engines in Germany.\u00a0<\/p>\n
By contrast, the new Cadillac team will get its power unit from Ferrari (at least initially); Aston Martin uses a Honda power unit; McLaren uses one from Mercedes-AMG; and so on.<\/p>\n
When Audi enters a racing series, it usually wins.<\/p>\n
The power unit performance changes for 2026. There\u2019s still a turbocharged 1.6-liter V6 at play, as well as the motor generator, dubbed MGU-K. That K stands for kinetic, and it\u2019s the only motor generator on the cars now. There were previously two, with the other called the MGU-H, where the H stood for heat. One harnessed energy under braking, and the other did so via the exhaust gases.<\/p>\n
Stepping down to a single motor-generator will save weight and reduce overall complexity. That generator will shoulder a larger power load, however, as engine power is cut for the new season. The cars will still deliver around 1,000 horsepower, but the power split is around 50:50, instead of the 20 percent of power previously supplied by the motor generators.<\/p>\n
Not that the cars are remotely the same, but Audi has a history of winning with hybrid race cars. I know you remember the incredible R18. But even before that, when Audi wanted to go endurance racing, it set incredibly difficult goals and then met them. Let\u2019s jump back to the Audi R8 LMP. That car was introduced to kick off the 2000 racing season, and it was immediately amazing.<\/p>\n
That\u2019s putting it lightly, to be honest. The car won Le Mans in 2000, 2001, 2002, 2004, and 2005. Who won it in 2003? The Bentley Speed 8. You know what that car is underneath\u2026 It\u2019s basically the Audi R8 LMP.<\/p>\n
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Photo by: Audi<\/p>\n
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Photo by: Audi<\/p>\n
Photos by: Audi<\/p>\n
That\u2019s just endurance racing. We could also talk about the Audi S1 and Group B. We could talk about the TCR series, GT3-class racing, and we could take a deep dive into the amazing Audi IMSA GTO cars.<\/p>\n
Formula One is, of course, quite different from all of that. You can\u2019t simply roll into F1 and expect to get instant top-tier results. You need the right team management in place. Audi already has that covered, too.\u00a0<\/p>\n