He said Audi’s use of motorsport to “test and develop new technologies” had allowed it to write motorsport history “on several occasions”.
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Piloting the ABT Schaeffler Audi Sport Formula E cars for the upcoming season of the series are Daniel Abt and Lucas di Grassi, who will play a key role in shaping the team’s vehicle for the future. Therefore, it intends to replicate this level of success in the world of full-electric racing.
Audi made this move after ABT completed two seasons in FIA Formula E Championship, and in both the seasons, team ABT narrowly missed out on winning the title.
This is the first factory single-seater programme for the Audi brand, which has been linked to Formula 1 in recent years and now competes in the LMP1 division of the World Endurance Championship and the DTM.
Formula E has long extolled the benefits of its series to auto makers fast-tracking EV development; Audi won’t even launch its first full EV until 2018 yet, by 2025, aims for one in every four new cars sold to be an electric vehicle.
Although media speculation has repeatedly linked Audi with a Formula 1 entry for the last decade or more, the brand has continually denied any interest. But in the 2016/17 season, Audi will also be providing financial and technical support, before joining the technical development team with Schaeffler in the 2017/18 season.
“With quattro drive we revolutionized rally racing and subsequently set standards in circuit racing as well”. ABT has also had access to Audi Sport’s Neuburg HQ during this time. The first step is that the company plans on increasing its involvement in the operations of the ABT Schaeffler Audi Sport team for the third season of Formula E – that is the 2016-2017 season that will begin at Hong Kong this October.
“Now we intend to repeat this in fully electric racing”.
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Audi has finally given the green light to move ahead with an official, factory-backed Formula E programme, scheduled to kick off in season four but with increased involvement from season three.
