At the end of last year Audi, a stalwart of endurance racing since 1999 and a participant in the World Endurance Championship (WEC) since it began in 2012, announced it was ending its involvement in favour of joining Formula E. The emissions scandal facing its owners Volkswagen had not helped its cause but more pertinently Audi appeared to be acknowledging the diesel hybrids it was running no longer fitted with where its market in road cars was going.

    On the Friday before the Hungarian Grand Prix, Porsche, also owned by Volkswagen, announced it too was leaving the WEC at the end of this season and would enter Formula E in 2019. Only four days earlier Mercedes revealed it was to leave the German touring car series DTM, in which it has been competing since 1988. It too announced it would be joining FE in 2019.

    None of this happened in isolation. Formula E already boasts a formidable group of manufacturers and the three new teams will line up alongside BMW, Jaguar, Mahindra and Renault. It is, however, a shift in focus that is more complex than a simple PR nod to the environment.




posted 2443 days ago