IT WAS CLAIMED THAT QATARIS TOOK OVER THE MAJORITY SHARE OF AUDI!
According to the claim of F1 journalist Ralf Bach, the majority share of Audi was sold to Qataris.Audi’s announcement of the Gabriel Bortoleto transfer on Wednesday was bad news for Mick Schumacher, who hopes to return to the grid.Schumacher was racing to be an Audi driver, but Mattia Binotto went in a different direction. Due to the F3 championship he won last year and the ongoing F2 leadership, Bortoleto’s value is quite high.
On the other hand, Schumacher stayed away from F1 after losing the Haas seat two years ago, and only the Red Bull/RB issue remained unresolved for next season. In this case, 37-year-old Nico Hulkenberg will remain the only German pilot on the grid.The German Grand Prix has also not been on the calendar since 2019, although a dark picture for Germany’s presence in F1, Audi’s arrival in 2026 was expected to improve things.
However, speaking to the F1-Insider YouTube channel, Ralf Bach reported that Audi sold the majority stake of the team to Qatari investors. Bach stated that the deal will be announced at the Qatar Grand Prix at the end of this month.
Bach considers this a blow to F1 in Germany, as Audi’s iconic four rings will remain just a “ornament.” The Audi F1 team will be a Qatari team with a de facto German badge.Bach said: “One thing we didn’t tell you is that Audi will no longer be a German team in the future because from what I’ve heard, it has Qatari supporters. The majority of the Audi team has been sold, this is expected to be announced in Qatar.”
“This means that we will have no other pilots in the future except Nico Hulkenberg. We will have an Audi where the four rings consist only of ornaments. The majority of the team will consist of Qataris.”
Volkswagen, the owner of Audi, recently announced that it had closed three factories in Germany. While Audi had gone quite far in F1 preparations, it was difficult to find the reason for continuing the project and was experiencing a “terrible dilemma”. The investment agreement with Qatar allows Audi to continue the project without much burden on VW’s strained resources.
Audi will take its place in the F1 grid with Mercedes as a German team, but Mercedes is based in Brackley and is seen as a more British team. The country is really waiting for is the next big race talent.
German pilots win 179 victories in the sport, ranking second after the British (314). Michael Schumacher and Sebastian Vettel won 144 of these victories.
