Photo: Audi Media Center

Audi's battle is lost: So why does the team protest against Mercedes?

19:02, 21 Jan

byLudo van Denderen

Newcomer Audi is being firmly confronted by reality in the engine debate. Although the team is openly complaining about the alleged Mercedes power unit 'trick' being allowed, Audi realizes that protesting against it makes little sense.

Full of ambition, the new Audi F1 Team presented itself to the world in Berlin. The German squad wants to become world champion, even the 'most successful' team in the history of the sport. That likely won’t happen next season, as its power unit lacks the alleged Mercedes 'trick'.

Audi on the back foot

Compared to that manufacturer, Audi probably has a performance disadvantage—large enough to know in advance that there will be a deficit to the Mercedes teams. This is a bitter pill for the newcomer to swallow.

According to Audi, their domestic rival has deliberately bent the regulations to its will, which the team of Nico Hulkenberg and Gabriel Bortoleto says could never have been the intention when the FIA made the rules.

Photo: Audi

Audi is one of the teams demanding that the FIA ban, on the eve of the new season, the 'trick' with the compression ratio devised by Mercedes (and reportedly copied by Red Bull Ford). A small caveat: no one — Audi included — knows exactly how the Mercedes engine works, and thus whether there's anything happening that isn’t allowed.

Stirring up a lot of commotion seems pointless if you don’t even know what you’re opposing. Moreover, Formula 1 is a sport of innovation, where teams and drivers always push the limits of what’s allowed. Sometimes they cross the line, and then the FIA intervenes.

Audi's battle is lost

The motorsport federation closely monitored the development of the Mercedes engine and has now homologated it. It seems little more than wishful thinking on Audi’s part that the FIA would order Mercedes (and possibly Red Bull Ford) to make changes to the engine — something that is hardly feasible in the short term anyway.

Photo: Audi

Audi knows the battle is lost, but by protesting openly, the team at least shows sponsors, partners, fans, the FIA, and other F1 teams that it can stand its ground — even if it yields little in the end. Meanwhile, the engineers in the power unit department are surely investigating whether they can copy or even improve on Mercedes' 'trick'.

If the latter succeeds and Audi suddenly has a huge advantage itself, the protests will undoubtedly stop quickly.

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