05/12/2022
NEWS STORY
Audi's Competence Center Motorsport is being expanded ahead of its entry to F1 in 2026.
Next week sees construction begin on a new 3,000 sq metre building which will house the test benches for the development of the power unit.
The Competence Center Motorsport in Neuburg an der Donau, which opened in the summer of 2014, is considered as one of the most modern of its kind.
All of Audi's factory racing operations, as well as customer racing, are coordinated from there. The futuristic Audi RS Q e-tron, with its innovative drivetrain for the Dakar Rally, was built there, as was the Audi R18 e-tron quattro hybrid, the Audi RS 5 DTM and the all-electric Formula E car. And now the entire power unit for the F1 project is being developed and built in Neuburg.
"With the Competence Center Motorsport, we have an ideal base for our Formula 1 project," said Oliver Hoffmann, Board Member for Technical Development. "Audi Neuburg was designed from the outset to be able to tackle the most demanding motorsport projects. This foresight is paying off. With the existing facilities, we were able to immediately begin with the Formula 1 project. The expansion will create the necessary infrastructure for the development of our F1 power unit for the long term. With the building extension and the installation of state-of-the-art test benches, we are giving our development team the best possible conditions to be successful in the top class of motorsport."
The new building, called F7.2, will be built at the south-western end of the existing building complex on a previously unused area and will be connected to the F7 building through a closed bridge. In addition to test benches for the power unit and engines, there will be technical rooms, a mechanical workshop and workplaces for about 60 employees on a total area of 3,000 square meters. Completion of the extension is planned for the first quarter of 2024. Part of the new building is to be put into operation as early as March of next year.
The electricity and heat supply in Neuburg is already CO2-neutral: the facility is supplied with district heating from industrial waste heat and green electricity from hydroelectric power plants. The FIA has awarded the facility its highest accolade for environmental conservation and sustainability with the three-star environmental seal of approval. Audi's goal is to generate the energy for the Formula 1 project at the Neuburg facility completely independently and regeneratively in the medium term.
It is not only the infrastructure that is being expanded. The team is also growing steadily. Currently, around 220 employees have been recruited for the Formula 1 project at the Neuburg facility. The goal is to have more than 300 employees by mid-2023.
"Developing a power unit for the world's most demanding racing series in Germany is a great challenge," said Adam Baker, Managing Director of Audi Formula Racing GmbH, which was founded for the project. "We already have a great team at our facility in Neuburg that is growing all of the time."