Audi F1 to be sold to Qatar; Will the deal be bigger than expected?

Despite all the denials, German carmaker Audi could sell its factory programme for Formula 1 in 2026.
The team’s buyer appears to be the United Arab Emirates of Qatar, with Formula 1 journalist Joe Saward the first to report on the matter on October 30.

He wrote at the time: “I expect a takeover of Sauber by a Qatari company and I think the best time to announce it would be during the Qatar GP weekend.”

Saward’s news did not initially receive much attention in the international press, but has been picked up by other platforms in recent days.

Audi is apparently considering selling a minority stake in the team in order to raise new capital.

According to Motorsport-Total.com, the deal could move faster and be completed as early as next week.

Additionally, there may be a much larger investment than reflected in various media reports.

Audi announced as recently as March that it would buy not just 75 percent but 100 percent of the Hinwil-based racing team from Finn Rausing for a price of around 650 million euros.

At a time when many investors are looking to get into Formula 1, this is a relatively low entry price.

However, Volkswagen AG, which owns the Audi brand, has been in economic crisis for several weeks. There are talks of factories being closed in Germany and up to 30,000 job losses. This crisis is also affecting the Audi brand, which is facing similar difficulties in the global market.

Audi and industry insiders say behind closed doors that the company’s massive development programme for Formula 1 is currently too difficult to finance within the group.

This is because capital is needed more urgently elsewhere.

Audi’s entry into Formula 1 and Qatar’s possible investment

Audi continues to describe its decision to join Formula 1 as “the right time.”

According to CEO Gernot Döllner, Audi’s move is in line with its long-term strategy and is an important part of the brand’s plans to rebuild itself. This is because the brand sees a great fit between the strategies set by Formula 1 and Audi.

But given the crisis surrounding Volkswagen AG, the money needed for the Formula 1 project is hard to come by there, so fresh capital from Qatar is welcome for the German manufacturer.

The Qataris are said to be ready to put up to a billion euros into the project if conditions are right for them.

In any case, Qatar would be a logical investor for Audi. First of all, the state airline Qatar Airways is already one of the main sponsors of Formula 1, so Qatar is already very interested in being involved in Formula 1.

Secondly, Qatar has already invested in Volkswagen AG and has a 17 percent stake in the group.

Qatar also holds two of the 20 seats on Volkswagen AG’s supervisory board, held by former ICT minister Dr. Hessa Sultan Al Jaber and Qatar Investment Authority CEO Mansoor Bin Ebrahim Al-Mahmoud.

Departure of leaders

Although talks are at an advanced stage, it is currently unclear how exactly Qatar plans to participate in Audi’s Formula 1 programme.

Some media outlets are reporting that a minority investment will be made without any significant change in the team’s public image.

However, the investment could also be larger and Qatar or a Qatari company could be added directly to the team’s name, other than Audi.

This would likely be the case if Qatar were to buy more than 50 percent of Sauber AG and its engine plant in Neuburg.

“There’s a lot going on at Audi at the moment. Due to the economic situation of the group, it looks like a big part of the team has been sold to Qatar,” said Ralf Schumacher.

“I wonder what will happen next at Audi,” he said.

In any case, the idea of ​​bringing in a new investor from Qatar was not part of Audi’s vision for its Formula 1 programme, but the economic crisis gave birth to the idea.

In addition, this may be due in large part to the fact that the two people responsible for this task are no longer at Audi.

One of them was CEO Markus Duesmann, who was seen as a key supporter of the Formula 1 program and was let go from Audi in the summer of 2023. The other was Oliver Hofmann, who oversaw the Formula 1 program as a member of Audi’s research and development board.

This meant that the program’s two biggest supporters were gone.