The German manufacturer was due to see out its third and final season in the FIA-sanctioned series as part of its much-touted cross-country programme with the RS Q e-tron hybrid.
However, just a month after scoring a maiden win in the prestigious Dakar marathon in Saudi Arabia in January, Audi announced that it would be shutting down the project with immediate effect, leaving it out of the remaining four events on the W2RC calendar.
But the decision won’t go down without financial consequences, with stewards at the Abu Dhabi Desert Challenge penalising the brand for missing the second round of the season as per article 3.4.3 of the FIA Cross-Country Rally Sporting Regulations.
It was noted that Audi had registered as a manufacturer for the 2024 W2RC season and it was ‘harming the image’ of the series by skipping certain events.
As such, the stewards concluded “to impose a fine penalty of 750,000 EUR on the manufacturer TEAM AUDI SPORT of which the amount of 562,500 EUR is applied with suspension of sentence subject to no further similar infringement during the 2024 FIA World Rally-Raid Championship.”
#204 Team Audi Sport Audi RS Q e-tron E2: Carlos Sainz Sr, Lucas Cruz
Photo by: Audi Communications Motorsport
Given Audi has already made it clear that it doesn’t intend on rejoining the championship later in the year, it is expected that it would have to pay the entire fine to the FIA W2RC series.
When enquired about the fine by Motorsport.com’s sister title Motorsport-Total.com, an Audi spokesman said: «We are appealing and will not comment further on the matter as it is an ongoing procedure.»
Audi had previously described a lack of spare parts as the main reason for bringing its rally-raid programme to a premature end. It claimed that lead times for some parts go as long as two years, and it burned through more components than it had expected during the last two editions of Dakar.
“Audi is ending the rally project as planned after its third participation in the Dakar Rally, and the consideration of a possible participation in the 2024 World Rally Raid Championship has been rejected,” it had said in a statement.
“After extremely high spare parts consumption at the 2023 Dakar, a very intensive test program in 2023 and the damage that occurred, as well as the very tough 2024 Dakar Rally, most of the prototype parts have been used up as a thorough analysis showed.
“The long lead times in the production of such one-offs are sometimes up to two years due to very few, highly specialized suppliers for Audi’s extremely complex prototype.
“This means that the framework conditions are not in place within which Audi could ensure successful participation in the World Rally Raid Championship during an entire season.”
Audi won the 2024 Dakar event with Carlos Sainz Sr driving the latest iteration of the RS Q e-tron, which utilised the powertrain technology it developed in Formula E and the DTM.
With its rally programme coming to a close, Audi will not have a factory involvement in motorsport until it joins the Formula 1 grid in 2026 as part of its takeover of Sauber.