www.autosport.com
Porsche tie up with Red Bull most likely whilst Audi will be a separate entry. Likely in the form of purchasing an existing team.
All confirmed internally with the only things to be set being officially announcing the plans which will likely come in the form of an official announcement for at least Porsche at the Austrian GP (which would make sense in a Red Bull partnership capacity). Audi meanwhile are less concrete but the likelihood of buying a team is strong with Sauber, Williams, McLaren and Aston Martin being potential targets.
Porsche and Audi have decided to enter F1 in 2026, according to Herbert Diess, the CEO of the Volkswagen Group.
the-race.com
I think the Porsche one sounds like a done deal with Diess all but confirming Porsches entry as concrete, with rumours rife around Red Bull, that's a done deal in my opinion.
Audi is more interesting, it's difficult to imagine the newly owned Williams being bought by Audi, as their intention clearly is to have their own team and own engine (possibly based on the F1 spec V6 combustion plant Porsche developed some years back for the current hybrid rules).
I could see Sauber possibly, clearly talks went far enough with Andretti for it to be real news, but Audi is a far more lucrative sale in terms of profile and financial gain. Sauber though, have said repeatedly that they aren't interested in selling and are happy with how things are, they're in a good place and the budget cap has bought them back into the thick of the midfield.
However, Lawrence Stroll may also see it as the perfect opportunity to cash in his Aston Martin investment and Audi will be tempted by the fancy new factory, wind tunnel and simulators all being in place. Especially given their awful start to 2022. Plus, the F1 team operation is totally separate to all other Aston Martin Racing operations and the road car division, so there's no caveats to the purchase. Unlikely potentially with McLaren.
McLaren, is a very interesting prospect, everything's there, but they're such a staple of F1 and Zak Brown is as passionate as anyone about the sport and his team. But the rumours consistently seem to end up back at McLaren, plus with the false start story late last year about Audi buying McLaren, perhaps there's more to that story than meets the eye. I wouldn't rule it out, but perhaps rather than buying the entire McLaren group (which would be an odd move for VAG as a whole), Audi may just buy McLaren Racing off of McLaren Automotive. The problem there being they're based inside MTX alongside development and production of McLaren Cars so how feasible that is I don't know. But there's no smoke without fire.
