Audi drop Audi supported drivers and programs

Audi has put a stop to their factory-supported GT3 programs in a reshuffle at the company and now will just solely focus on customer support-only programs from the end of this year.

The brand has been in international GT3 racing since 2009 but with the letter sent to customer teams Tuesday, Audi is majorly downsizing their program.

Firstly Audi will stop selling their GT2, GT3, GT4, and TCR cars in Q1 of 2024, and customers who already own the cars will only have homologations of the car updated for one more cycle.

Furthermore, Audi will end factory-supported programs, which will see some teams lose financial support and factory-provided drivers.

Better news for the teams based on their future is that Audi will continue their on-site operations support for worldwide customers with advisors and spare parts still on offer from Audi Customer Racing.

Some of the current drivers in the factory-supported program that will be affected by these changes are Markus Winkelhock, Christopher Haase, Christopher Mies, Frédéric Vervisch, Mattia Drudi, Patric Niederhauser, Dennis Marschall, and Ricardo Feller.

The decision is one that was made recently with reports that the decision was made on Monday, with letters being sent out to teams on Tuesday.

Audi has always had a very successful partnership with factory teams, for example in DTM they won two titles with Team Phoenix, five drivers,  Four team titles with ABT Sportsline, and two drivers and two teams championships with Team Rosberg.

Furthermore, they had two factory-supported teams at this year’s Nürburgring 24 Hours, with the Audi sport Team Land finishing 6th overall in the race which had five different brands finish in the top six.

This came off the back of a factory-supported Team Phoenix winning the race last year, showing Audi still had a competitive program.

Then for the future, Audi is still evaluating follow-up projects for customer racing.