Is F1 in Audi's post-Le Mans plans?

Next week, the eyes of motorsport fans across the globe will be focused on France's Sarthe region, host to the Le Mans 24 Hours. Absent for the first time in 18 years - during which time its Vorsprung durch Technik (headstart through technology) enabled the company to amass 13 outright victories - will be Audi, having last October quit the World Endurance Championship.

Significantly, four of Audi Sport's 13 wins were delivered by evolutions of the diesel-powered R18 - some with supplementary hybrid systems - so when the emissions scandal hit the entire VW Group it was clear the project was doomed. There was no way the company could punt the performance and emissions advantages of diesels while fighting court cases on both sides of the Atlantic.

With sister company Porsche participating in the WEC with its hybrid petrol-powered 919, it made no sense for both brands to slug it out in the sportscar arena using fundamentally similar technologies - although, intriguingly, the group's Audi, Porsche, Lamborghini and Bentley products take each other on in GT3 on the basis that they square up in showrooms.

The exit announcement quoted Audi chairman Rupert Stadler as saying, "We're going to contest the race for the future on electric power," adding as an indicator of Audi's future direction, "As our production cars are becoming increasingly electric, our motorsport cars, as Audi's technological spearheads, have to [be] even more so".

Into that comment read 'Formula E'.

The Four Rings were already present in the category, sported on cars entered by long-time Audi tuner/DTM entrant Abt, but Stadler's comments implied that Audi would enter Formula E in its own right, with fully-fledged Audi Sport entries. Intriguingly, though, the cars are still entered by Abt - more of which later.

Almost simultaneously with Audi's WEC withdrawal came news that Dr Wolfgang Ullrich, its motorsport boss since 1993, would be retiring after reaching mandatory retirement age, with Dieter Gass (54) stepping into the Austrian's formidable shoes.

Gass had worked at Audi Sport from 1994-2001, primarily in Super Touring and sports prototypes, before heading for Toyota F1 as chief race and test engineer. When the Japanese company withdrew from F1 at the end of 2009 he switched to Lotus/Caterham before returning to Audi as Ullrich's heir apparent. The handover has now been completed.

We meet in Gass's office at the Audi Sport base in Neuberg, 20 miles west of Ingolstadt on a campus housing Audi's advanced driving school and Audi Sport Customer Racing. As the name suggests, the latter supplies equipment to teams such as Land Racing, winner of the Nurburgring 24 Hours with a GT3 Audi R8 LMS, displayed in the Audi Forum just a few days after its win.

The opening question is, of course, how does Formula E fit into the overall Audi Sport spectrum?

"Well," says Gass after a thoughtful pause, "first of all I think Formula E fits into the general Audi spectrum rather than only the Audi Sport spectrum. I think e-mobility is the coming big thing.

"Formula E is the only tool that we have to promote e-mobility, to create emotion and passion about e-mobility. And that's a big chunk of what it's all about."

Moving from a full-time WEC commitment - sources in the loop estimate that Audi spent around £150million on that programme - to a vastly different environment surely demanded a mindset switch. Is the nascent electric car racing series actually the right sort of numbers?

"Currently Formula E is on a somewhat controlled budget, and we do hit this budget, which is good," he says. "If you look on the return on investment, on the spectators and everything, it's developing well.

"I would expect as well that there's going to be an ongoing development in terms of interest and spectators and everything, not least with more manufacturers coming in. I think the level of [media and public] interest will heavily develop in the near future."

During the Paris ePrix, series boss Alejandro Agag indicated that a two-car team could be run for as little as "€10m" (£8.5m). Could a front-running Formula E team really be run for what is in F1 terms a pittance?

"I would say you may need a little bit more, but not too much more, and be far away from the spread between a low-budget Formula 1 team and a front-running Formula 1 team," Gass says.

We discuss the relative budget spreads in F1, and eventually settle on a factor of five, meaning Ferrari or Mercedes annually spend around five times the budgets of Force India or Haas. Gass reckons Formula E's spread to be in the vicinity of 1.5 to two.

The concern is, though, that once Formula E's development is freed up, costs will escalate. What then?

"OK," says Gass, "that's the next question, clearly. Formula E is doing a very good job there, because it is carefully monitored on what is going to be released in development and what is not.

"Manufacturers will be interested in having the possibility to develop in certain areas, possibly parts of the battery as well at one stage, even though we know we [will] get the new common battery for seasons five-seven included, so basically we're talking about four to five years' time down the road before a battery development will come into place.

"Then you still want to look into what you release in terms of battery development. Once you get into cell development, costs will immediately go through the roof. But if you keep a spec cell for example, and you just allow using the spec cells into your own battery, that could be something interesting, but still somewhat keep the budget in control."

Formula E is peculiar in that championship seasons are spread across two years. DTM is Audi Sport's premier series, although this is expected to change with season four of the electric single-seater series, which kicks off in December in Hong Kong. Will Audi Sport then take over Abt's entry, and turn it into an official operation?

The word in Formula E's paddock is that Abt will operate the team, albeit on a contractor basis, with both cars entered under the Audi Sport banner - much as the WEC team was run by Joest. Another parallel is Renault's Formula E team, an official operation managed by e.dams.

Gass will not be drawn on these rumours, saying its "top championship is still DTM", before clarifying: "If you want to really put it straight, we are not yet 100% involved in Formula E. So our top championship is the DTM. And then, as well from the size, from the level of investment, for some time it will continue in that way [in terms of the size of budgets].

"The DTM budget is still a bit higher, so it's still somehow the prime championship that we have, but we are very close. The level of attention that you create in Formula E is important."

Although Formula E makes much of the fact that the series has attracted seven manufacturers - as F1 did during the early noughties - does he foresee the risk that some will exit upon realising that one will place, at best, seventh? Having been with Toyota in F1, Gass has experienced the ebb and flow of manufacturers.

"If you look back in history, a field with so many manufacturers never lasted very long. So yes, the question arises, but I would now take it as it is, be happy that it is like that, that the interest is there. I wouldn't start worrying now about that problem."

We move on to race formats. How does he feel about Saturday events, inner-city racing, and the contentious mid-race car swap?

"That initially was one element that made us a bit sceptical about Formula E," he says, responding to the last point first. "When you're a car manufacturer and you want to promote e-mobility, you don't want to promote that after half an hour you need to stop and swap your car and get another car.

"You want to show that you are able to run with your storage like the petrol car. That's why the racing format in that concern is not the best one."

Then, though, an opinion that's been increasingly heard recently, namely that Formula E's mid-race stops spice up the event...

"Having said that, it turns out that the pitstop is one of the exciting elements during the race, as it is in other races as well. So if you want to keep the pitstop somehow without changing the car, I think you need to come up with something which replaces the car-swapping."

Here is Gass clearly referring to 2018/19, when battery capacity will be sufficient to cover an entire race distance without swapping, unless, of course, race distances are increased.

"I think once we have the single-car race, we will keep that and not swap batteries, and probably not try to do some quick-charging or something like that because I think it's still going to be too long anyway. But you need to look at other possibilities, if you could come up with something different."

We move onto the calendar, which clearly finds Audi's favour: "I think cities are OK, are good, really.

"You may want to look into a little stability in the race calendar, which currently has some movement. But I always tend to say the risks and chances of Formula E are basically the same. The essence of Formula E is running in the city, in the centre of the capitals of the world.

"This is a unique feature Formula E has that other motorsports don't have in that way. On the other hand, that's the risk as well, because you need to put in an infrastructure for two days, which costs a lot of money; you depend on the political situation - if you have a new mayor coming in and he's not interested.

"That puts an element of risk in your stability in the calendar. Those are the potential obstacles that you could still have in Formula E."

He draws a parallel with DTM, which has nine sets of doubler-header weekends, making for an 18-race championship. "Could be a possibility - 18 races, nine weekends, why not?"

The final question about Formula E. Does he, as an ex-F1 engineer, miss the noise factor - both in contemporary F1 and Formula E?

"A traditional motor racing fan, I think would definitely miss the noise. But since the fan of Formula E, the spectator of Formula E, is different, I'm not sure if he misses the noise.

"He might as well not even care about it. Because we, as we grow up - and you're the generation that I am - we grew up with the noise, and what I remember from my first F1 race was the noise of the Matra 12-cylinder engine. That's the thing that still makes my hairs rise."

Gass's recollection triggers talk of Audi Sport and F1. In late-March it emerged that Stefano Domenicali, former Ferrari sporting boss and now CEO of Lamborghini - an Audi subsidiary - had attended a session of the FIA's Engine Working Group, called to discuss F1's post-2020 engine format. Does the Italian's presence at the meeting signify F1 interest from Audi Sport?

"Basically all manufacturers, or potential manufacturers, were invited by the FIA, and we had the discussions with Stefano on the subject. It was decided that he would go there, and you don't simply not participate if the FIA invites you for a meeting like that."

Others who were invited didn't go...

"That's up to them."

The only non-current party to be represented was the VW Group (given the close ties between Alfa Romeo and Ferrari).

"OK," says Gass. "But, still, if you wanted to participate in 2021, you would need to have a decision very, very soon. And then again, if you look at the situation, there's still the aftermath of dieselgate and everything; it's probably not the right moment anyway."

Is the current format, namely a turbocharged petrol-hybrid with significant road relevance, of interest to Audi?

An intriguing response: "Honestly, and obviously this is my really very personal opinion, if a decision would be made to participate in F1 I think it's rather the fact of participating in F1 than participating because of it having the right concept.

"Yes, it cannot be something that's completely out of proportion; there needs to be a technological challenge, yes, but whether that's now, let's say, a four-cylinder or six-cylinder engine, I would say yes, it has an element of relevance, but it's second-order to the genuine decision of willing to participate."

So the question of Audi participating in F1 is more a philosophical and/or marketing matter than an engineering decision?

"That's what I would imagine, yes."