Motorsport history
Audi is positioning itself as the sportiest manufacturer in the premium segment and has a perfect basis for this: motorsport. Sportiness, advanced technology and emotional design are the foundations for the success of the Audi brand. Valuable genes for this come from motor racing.
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Entering the premier class of motorsport
Audi is facing what is arguably its biggest challenge in motorsport. From the 2026 season, the brand will be competing in the FIA Formula 1 World Championship with its own works team. Development of the drive unit (“Power Unit”) is in full swing at the Neuburg an der Donau site. Thanks to open competition, Formula 1 serves as a technology driver for both electromobility and sustainable e-fuels.
Photo: Showcar with Audi F1 launch livery
Milestones
Success with electric drive concepts
Sustainability does not only play an important role in the premier class of motorsport. The company began electrifying its motorsport program in endurance racing in 2012. With the first victory of a hybrid racing car at the Le Mans 24 Hours, Audi achieved a pioneering feat at the world’s most important endurance race in 2012. The Audi R18 e-tron quattro remained unbeaten three times in a row at Le Mans in 2012, 2013 and 2014. Many other innovations such as the Audi laser light complement the pioneering technical achievements. Drivers and manufacturers titles with the hybrid sports car in the 2012 and 2013 FIA World Endurance Championship (WEC) complete the Audi sports car era, which ended in 2016. Following the LMP program with the R18 hybrid sports car, Audi was the first German car manufacturer to compete in the all-electric Formula E racing series in the 2017/2018 season. With four victories and a total of eleven podium finishes, Audi Sport ABT Schaeffler clinched the team championship after twelve races. Things continued to go electric after that: the brand with the four rings competed in the famous Dakar Rally from 2022 with an innovative prototype. Audi made history in January 2024: the Audi RS Q e-tron was the first low-emission prototype with an electric drive, high-voltage battery and energy converter to win the world’s toughest desert rally.
Photo: 24h Le Mans 2012, Audi R18 e-tron quattro #1 (Audi Sport Team Joest),
Marcel Fässler, André Lotterer, Benoît Tréluyer
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2024: Historic victory for Audi at the Dakar Rally
2021: “It’s been electrifying!” – 14 victories for Audi Sport ABT Schaeffler in Formula E
2016: Emotional farewell for Audi from the FIA WEC
Audi Sport customer racing for the brand’s customers
Since 2009, Audi has used its most competitive products to hunt for trophies worldwide in customer racing with production-based technology. In its second generation, the Audi R8 LMS was available in variants for the GT2, GT3 and GT4 categories. The Audi RS 3 LMS TCR touring car also existed in two generations for racing and competed on five continents. Since the start of the program, customers have won several hundred racing titles worldwide. Outstanding individual successes include two class victories for the GT3 sports car at the Daytona 24 Hours, three overall victories at the Bathurst 12 Hour, four triumphs in the road race in Macau and in the Spa 24 Hours and seven times at the Nürburgring 24 Hours.
Photo: First overall victory at the Nürburgring 24 Hours in 2012
Pioneering performance with TDI technology
Audi demonstrated a pioneering achievement with TDI technology: the newly designed Audi R10 TDI was the first racing sports car with a diesel engine to triumph in the legendary Le Mans 24 Hours in 2006. In total, TDI technology prevailed eight times at Le Mans. Audi won again at the Sarthe in 2007 and 2008 with the R10 TDI. In addition, Audi won the American Le Mans Series three times in a row with the diesel racing car and also the European Le Mans Series in 2008. With the R15 TDI, Audi celebrated a one-two-three victory in the fastest Le Mans race of all time in 2010, setting a new distance record that still stands today. Audi TDI power also prevailed at Le Mans in 2011, 2012, 2013 and 2014. In 2014, the brand celebrated its 13th victory in just 16 participations. Audi also demonstrated “Vorsprung durch Technik” in terms of energy efficiency: throughout the TDI era, Audi reduced diesel consumption by 46 percent within a decade.
Photo: Positions one, two, three and distance record for the Audi R15 TDI at the 2010 Le Mans 24 Hours
Title wins in the modern DTM
Following Laurent Aiello’s victory in 2002 with the Abt-Audi TT-R, Audi returned to the DTM in 2004 after a twelve-year absence and won the title at the first attempt with Mattias Ekström. The Swede also triumphed in 2007, followed by Timo Scheider in 2008 and 2009 – making Audi the first and so far only car manufacturer in DTM history to achieve a title hat-trick. Martin Tomczyk completed the success story of the Audi A4 DTM in the 2011 season with another title win – the fifth for the Audi A4 DTM. In 2013, Mike Rockenfeller clinched Audi’s ninth DTM title in total with the Audi RS 5 DTM. In his rookie year, René Rast caused a sensation with another title in 2017. Audi also won the manufacturers championship. Rast won the prestigious title two more times in 2019 and 2020. This means that Audi drivers have already won the DTM twelve times. There are also six manufacturers and eight team titles. In terms of technology, Audi has mastered one of the biggest upheavals in the history of the racing series with flying colors: In the two concluding years of the era of turbocharged engines, the Audi RS 5 DTM with its highly efficient two-liter turbo engine was the measure of all things with 28 victories, 95 podium finishes, 29 pole positions, 28 fastest race laps and all six championship titles. Since 2021, the DTM has been exclusively for GT3 sports cars.
Photo: DTM 2004, Audi A4 DTM #5 (Audi Sport Team Abt), Mattias Ekström
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2020: Farewell: Audi RS 5 DTM breaks numerous records
Audi R8 most successful Le Mans sports car of the modern era
At the end of the nineties, Audi opened a new chapter when the brand turned its attention to the challenge of sports prototypes. As before in the other disciplines, the aim here was to assert the claim of “Vorsprung durch Technik”. At its debut in Le Mans, the world’s toughest endurance race, Audi immediately made it onto the podium in 1999 with third place. In the following years, the Audi R8 was in a class of its own. From 2000 to 2002, Audi achieved a historic hat-trick, also thanks to the TFSI technology that was used for the first time in 2001 and later found its way into large scale production. In 2004 and 2005, customer teams clinched two more overall victories for Audi at Le Mans. The R8 secured its place in motorsport history with a total of 63 victories in 80 sports car races.
Photo: The three winning cars of the 2000, 2001 and 2002 Le Mans 24 Hours
quattro for the racetrack
Making quattro all-wheel drive ready for the racetrack was Audi’s major task in the second half of the 1980s. The series of successes began in 1988 with the Audi 200 quattro and in 1989 with the Audi 90 quattro IMSA GTO in the USA. In 1990 and 1991, the Audi V8 quattro won two championship titles in the German Touring Car Championship (DTM). Subsequently, the 80 and A4 models continued the successes in the category of production-based super touring cars. In 1996, the Audi A4 quattro won the championship titles in seven countries before the FIA banned all-wheel drive in circuit races. It was not until 2012 that all-wheel drive returned to the racetrack as the e-tron quattro at Le Mans.
Photo: Mid-Ohio/USA: The photo illustrates the two-meter width of the Audi 90 IMSA GTO
The modern success story began with the Audi quattro
After the company revived the Audi brand in 1965 with its first new product series, a wide range of private racing initiatives developed in the 1970s, not least thanks to sports sponsorship. Motorsport activities received a major boost when Audi entered the World Rally Championship at the factory. From the 1981 season onwards, Audi competed with the quattro model and its legendary permanent four-wheel drive. The superior victories as well as two brand and two drivers titles with the “original quattro” in the World Rally Championship between 1982 and 1984 were an important factor in the market success of the quattro drive. This also spurred Audi’s rise into the premium manufacturer segment.
Photo: 1984 marks Audi's most successful year in rallying, winning the drivers' and manufacturers' world championships
A broad base in the post-war period
Auto Union products were particularly popular with private drivers after the Second World War. The sporty customers, as well as works drivers such as Heinz Meier, Gustav Menz and Hubert Brand, competed in touring car competitions, rallies and hill climbs. In 1954, the DKW Sonderklasse won the European Rally Championship with Walter Schlüter and the German Championship for Touring Cars with Heinz Meier. In 1956, the DKW Monza set several endurance records on the eponymous Italian racetrack. From 1954 to 1964, DKW drivers celebrated over 100 championship titles, 150 overall victories and 2,500 class victories in motorsport. Added to this was the factory’s involvement in motorcycle racing, motocross and off-road racing. In addition to the four Auto Union brands, another traditional company contributed its motorsport record: The NSU brand merged with Auto Union GmbH in 1969 to form Audi NSU Auto Union AG. Even before the war, factory entries of solo and sidecar motorcycles shaped the brand’s sports program. With the NSU 6/60 Kompressor sports car, the brand achieved a quadruple class victory on the Avus in 1926. Models such as the Wankel Spider or the TT touring car further enhanced the sporting record in the sixties and into the early seventies.
Photo: DKW 3 = 6 Sonderklasse displayed its sporting talent in the European Rally Championship
Pioneering achievements in the first half of the century
August Horch achieved an early success by winning the Herkomer-Fahrt in 1906. Audi then proved its long-distance qualities on the most adventurous mountain passes in Europe at the time. Conquering the Alps was a great challenge in the early days of the automobile. From 1912 to 1914, Audi won a total of eleven first prizes over the course of three editions of the International Austrian Alpine Rally and thus also the coveted Alpine Challenge Cup. A heyday followed after the founding of Auto Union in 1932 from the Audi, DKW, Horch and Wanderer brands. The spectrum was diverse and ranged from long-distance driving and off-road sports to solo and sidecar motorcycles, off-road sports bikes and record-breaking machines. In 1938, Ewald Kluge was the first German to win the legendary Tourist Trophy motorcycle race with DKW. The Auto Union racing cars from the Type A to the Type D revolutionized Grand Prix racing between 1934 and 1939 with their mid-engine concept. The single-seaters from Zwickau achieved 24 victories, 23 second places and 17 third places in 61 circuit races. The popular hill climbs and world record races completed the program. In addition to the engine layout, the lightweight construction, the optional streamlined bodywork and engine charging systems and thus up to 520 hp of power stood for extreme technology.
Photo: August Horch wins the Austrian Alpine Rally with the Audi Type C
