F1 Audi project stumbles again

The big new Formula One power unit changes coming in 2026 were intended to attract more manufactures into the sport. The regulations were initially intended to replace the current V6 turbo hybrids two seasons ago, but a lack of interest from auto manufacturers outside the sport together with FIA inertia saw the new F1 engines repeatedly delayed.

With development of the current power units frozen from 2022 the FIA decided that a huge new direction in car design and their aerodynamics would replace the delayed new F1 engine era. Yet even the additional years of consultation for the new F1 propulsion systems saw only Audi join the sport with the intention of running a works team.

Yet far from the big new F1 entry expected, Audi decided to buy the Swiss based Sauber team but have phased their acquisition over a number of years. 

Porsche meanwhile fell by the wayside as their big talk and ideas for Formula One entry came to nothing. The German sports-car brand decided it was too big a risk to start from scratch and sought to collaborate with Red Bull Racing in a similar fashion to Audi with Sauber.

Yet the over bureaucratic management style proposed by Porsche sent Christian Horner and his team running for the hills and so late in the day Porsche were left high and dry with no other options but to admit defeat on their Formula One dreams.

Within weeks Red Bull had announced they would now collaborate with Ford in the new F1 engine era, though this was in no way intended to be a relationship where Ford returned to the sport as a full time supplier of power units. Ford will contribute huge amounts of money for the F1 exposure and technical assistance on the electrical components of the new F1 engines.

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Audi meanwhile have dawdled along with their preparations to join F1 and Sauber having lost their title sponsor Alfa Romeo following the Audi announcement, have been left in some kind of limbo as the German investment trickles into the team.

Further they have been forced to sell their souls to new sponsors to finance their F1 racing during the interim period and now have registered the quite ridiculous name with the FIA for 2024 of Stake Sauber Kick F1 team.

Now the soon to be Audi, Swiss based team faces another problem as they seek to fund the next two years before the become the Audi team. Stake, a gambling organisation, are not licensed in Switzerland and there prominent branding on the car livery revealed today has prompted action from the Federal Casino Commission, which has opened proceedings against Sauber, posing a risk of at least a significant fine.

Legal expert Patrick Krauskopf, a professor of competition law at the Zurich University of Applied Sciences, told SRF publication the following:

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“Sponsoring would be allowed. In the present case, the brands Stake and Sauber are so linked together, or…