Last week, Audi announced its 2010 program, with the 24 Hours of Le Mans, DTM and a customer-program in GT3. Continuity compared to 2009, but there will be some news : the German manufacturer won’t race at  the 12 Hours of Sebring, but will contend in the Intercontinental Cup Le Mans. Dr Wolfgang Ullrich brings us some details on the upcoming season. He also looks back on the past year for Endurance-Info.

What is your feeling of Audi’s season ?

It was another successful season for Audi, especially in the DTM. We became the first manufacturer who was able to clinch three DTM titles in a row. The start of our new customer sport project with the Audi R8 LMS was also very successful. The Le Mans result was, of course, not the one we had hoped for. It just shows how difficult it is to win the Le Mans 24 Hours. We want to fight back next year!

Audi R15 was a completely new car, so were you surprised to win at Sebring?

Surprised is not the right word. We new the potential of the R15 TDI when we came to Sebring. But we had very little testing on dry tracks before Sebring and the car had never driven in high temperatures. So we were very pleased to see that our new car was competitive right from the start and able to win the race. It was a close battle with Peugeot and we are very proud of the victory. After the R8 and the R10 TDI also the R15 TDI was able to win its very first race at Sebring.

After this result, did you expect the problems you had at Le Mans?

We knew after Sebring that there was still a lot of work to do for Le Mans. We did not expect to have the problems and accidents we had in testing and we did not expect another change of the regulations which affected our Le Mans preparations. And for sure we did not expect the problems we had at Le Mans regarding the set-up and especially the dirt collecting in the radiators. This took us really by surprise at Le Mans.

The philosophy of the Audi R15 is quite different. Do you regret this choice?

No, not at all. The R10 TDI showed its potential in 2008 but it was clear we needed a new car if we want to win Le Mans again. The R15 TDI was a big step forward and the car has a lot of potential which we could not really exploit at Le Mans 2009.

Doing just one race before Le Mans, has it been decisive?

Of course it would have been better if we would have been able to do more races. But we simply did not have the capacity to do more races before Le Mans with the new car. Testing under bad weather conditions and accidents slowed us down.

So, how will you prepare Le Mans 2010 ?

We have more time to prepare because we will not develop a completely new car but the R15 plus which is an update of the R15 TDI. The test schedule will be not so much different from what we did in the past but we will try to do more testing on tracks which should guarantee better weather conditions.

Why have you compared the R10 and R15 in testing?
We use the R10 TDI as a reference in testing. We’ll do the same with a 2009-spec R15 TDI in the next months. This helps to really see where you stand and where you make improvements. With that many regulation changes going on it is very easy to get lost…

Why Audi won’t be at Sebring ? I imagine it is a consequence of the development on the R15 plus ?

The regulations for 2010 have been defined quite late by the ACO. The consequence is that the R15 plus will not be ready in time to race at Sebring and Peugeot did not accept to let us racing with an interim car.

About the R15 plus, the development is a consequence of ACO rules or of the assesment of 2009 season ?

Both of it. We’ve seen in 2009 which was great and which was not perfect enough. And of course we have to implement the rule changes of the ACO like everybody else.

ACO speaks about 5 races necessary to compete in the Intercontinental Cup. Audi has announced four : Spa, Silverstone, Petit Le Mans and Suzuka. Which one will be the 5th ? The second round of Asian LMS ?

This is not yet decided. There are different options.

How will you make your line-up ?
The answer is simple: We want to have the best possible line-up for the DTM, Le Mans and the Le Mans Intercontinental Cup.

Is it possible to see again Romain Dumas and Timo Bernhard with Audi ?

Their names are definitely on our list of possible candidates.

Tom Kristensen won’t be in DTM, so you “promote” Oliver Jarvis…

Yes. This was a logical choice. We’ve decided that our youngest “factory” driver, Oliver Jarvis, will get the chance. He had a very good performance over the last two years in the year-old cars.

About DTM, you clinched a third consecutive Drivers’ title. What is your view on this year?

We were able to clinch our third title in a row – something nobody before us had ever achieved. So we are very pleased with the 2009 season. We had the fastest car as you can see by eight poles in ten races and we won the title. DTM had good crowds and excellent TV ratings. So we can only be pleased with the 2009 season.

Audi has clinched more poles than Mercedes, but less victories. How do you explain that?

First of all that the Audi A4 DTM is a very fast car. In DTM it is also very important to react to changing track conditions during the qualifying segments. We’ve been very strong in this. Last but not least our drivers are very good in qualifying. With a little bit more luck we would have been able to clinch more victories. But in the end the most important thing was to clinch the title with Timo (Scheider).

Since several years, there are only two manufacturers in DTM. How do you see the future of the championship? 

We see it promising. The new regulations will cut the necessary budget down. I’m sure the DTM will attract additional manufacturers with the new regulations.

2009 was the first year of the R8 LMS. This season has been up to your expectations?

Our expectations were by far exceeded. 2009 was planned as a learning and development year for the R8 LMS. We did not expect to win 23 races and three championship titles.

With a new car, did you imagine such results at the Nurburgring 24hrs and Spa 24hrs?

Where ever Audi is competing our target is the victory. But you can’t grant a victory, especially not in 24 hour races. The Nürburgring 24 Hours was the first endurance race for the R8 LMS and before that weekend the car had never done such a long distance in testing. So the second place overall and the GT3 class victory was a very good result. Spa was planned a further endurance test and for sure nobody expected that the car would finish third overall among the GT1 and GT2 cars.

What will be the goals for 2010?

We will start to sell the R8 LMS to our customers. In 2010 we will limit sales to about 20 cars for the European market because we want to offer our customers the best possible support. If you buy an Audi you can expect premium support. We are carefully building up our customer sport program.

Audi be back at 24 Hours of Nurburgring…

I know that various teams plan to enter this race with a R8 LMS. Two cars will get special support from the factory.

Is there a possibility to see Audi develop a GT2 or GT1 version of the R8?

This is not on our agenda right now.

Anthony Megevand