Full speed ahead

Work at Audi Sport’s centre of excellence in Neuburg has gone into overdrive with a new building now underway designed specifically to house the new test benches for the brand’s entry into Formula 1. The announcement in September that Audi would compete in the world’s top motorsport category from 2026 signalled the start of another massive motorsport undertaking by Audi, to prepare in essentially three years for the rigours of Formula 1. But viewed in the context of the brand’s long and rich motorsport history as well as its tremendous engineering competence, such a huge task becomes a challenge that is not new to Audi and well within its grasp.

With the Formula 1 campaign to be housed and run from the impressive Audi Sport facility at Neuburg an der Donau, roughly an hour from Ingolstadt, work is now underway on the new building called F7.2. This building will add another 3000 square metres of space for the development of the power units to be used in the Formula 1 car competing in a factory team together with strategic partner Sauber.

The Neuburg facility represents the nerve centre for all of Audi Sport’s endeavours, from the ground-breaking Dakar campaign with the RS Q e-tron cars, to the brand’s tremendously successful customer racing programs and everything in between.

Opened back in 2014, it is a state-of-the-art facility that features its own race and development track, as well as a huge skid pan, off-road test track, development workshops and cutting-edge race simulator as well as function rooms and office facilities.

Audi’s Dakar monster, the RS Q e-tron was developed and built here, as were the Formula E cars and drivelines that competed so successfully in the World Formula E Championship until 2020. More traditional race cars like the Audi RS 5 DTM have also been developed and refined at Neuburg as well as the Audi R18 e-tron quattro hybrid race car which made history at the 24 hours of Le Mans and changed the face of the FIA World Endurance Championship forever.

It is here that the entire power unit for the new Formula 1 project, made up of an energy recovery system, electric motor, battery, highly efficient combustion engine and transmission will be developed and produced. In accordance with the new regulations which will be introduced to Formula 1 from 2026, around 50 percent of the drivetrain’s power will be electric, making this an even more specialised project, but an area in which Audi has demonstrated its expertise.

“Audi Neuburg was designed from the outset to be able to tackle the most demanding motorsport projects,” says Oliver Hoffmann, Board Member for Technical Development.

“This foresight is paying off. With the existing facilities, we were able to immediately begin with the Formula 1 project. With the building extension and the installation of state-of-the-art test benches, we are giving our development team the best possible conditions to be successful in the top class of motorsport.”

But not only is Audi looking to optimise its chances in Formula 1, it is doing so mindful of the company’s policy on creating the lowest environmental impact. The electricity and heat supply in Neuburg is already CO₂-neutral and is supplied with district heating from industrial waste heat and green electricity from hydroelectric power plants. The FIA (Fédération Internationale de l'Automobile) has awarded the facility its highest accolade for environmental conservation and sustainability with the three-star environmental seal of approval. Audi’s goal is to generate the energy for the Formula 1 project at the Neuburg facility completely independently and regeneratively in the medium term.

There is certainly a lot to do between now and the 2026 Formula 1 season, but it is the sort of challenge that appeals to the team at Audi Sport. Already some 220 new employees have been recruited for the project with the aim of having around 300 new personnel working on the Formula 1 campaign alone by the model of next year.