The key aspects of Porsche and Audi's planned F1 entries

Audi and Porsche have crafted titanic legacies in motorsport. The game-changing Audi Quattro established 40 years ago that surefooted four-wheel drive was fundamental for World Rally Championship success. Porsche has mastered the Le Mans 24 Hours with its record 19 victories. That run was started by the 917, arguably the greatest competition car of all time, which partially provided the template around which the Group C regulations – a hallowed era of sportscar racing that Porsche also dominated thanks to the 956/962 – were devised. 

But for neither manufacturer did the light shine quite so brightly with their forays into grand prix racing. Bernd Rosemeyer delivered Audi precursor Auto Union, with its Type C designed by Ferdinand Porsche, the European championship spoils in 1936. But it was swiftly toppled by Mercedes and never resumed its top-flight presence after the Second World War.