Audi Says No To Privateer LMP1 Le Mans Entrance

There’s no chance that an Audi R18 LMP1 car will be racing

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by Brad Anderson

March 16, 2017 at 12:01

There’s no chance that an Audi R18 LMP1 car will be racing at this year’s Le Mans 24 Hours following confirmation that the German outfit said no to a privateer entrant of the car.

Speaking to Motorsport, Roger Penske revealed that he approached Audi to potentially run the R18 at this year’s Le Mans on a privateer basis but Audi declined due to concerns about the publicity it would create.

“I talked about if we could get a privateer [effort] with some of those cars. But under the current situation with Audi, all the things they’re going through, they just said they’ve got enough eyeballs on them, they don’t need to be showing up at Le Mans. I’d love to run at Le Mans, but if I did I’d love to run at the front,” Penske said.

There was some hope that Audi could have reached such a deal with an existing racing outfit but this report confirms that this year’s Le Mans LMP1 category will consist solely of Porsche and Toyota.

Late last year, there was also a possibility that the 2017 VW Polo R WRC would compete in this year’s World Rally Championship on a privateer basis. However, that also failed to materialize.