Audi F1 Team Sale: Qatar Set for Minority Stake Purchase

Audi F1 is poised to sell a minority stake, with Qatar expected to invest, marking a significant shift in the team’s ownership structure.

Audi may finalize a partial sale of its Formula 1 team before it even lines up on the grid.

In early 2024, Audi deemed it essential to complete the full acquisition of Sauber, increasing its initial 75% stake to 100%.

This process is expected to be completed by 2026, when Audi will rebrand the team and officially enter Formula 1 with the new regulations, which will include the debut of Audi’s first F1 engine.

However, well-founded speculation in Germany suggests that Audi may not own the entire team.

An investment from Qatar’s sovereign wealth fund, which holds hundreds of billions of dollars in assets across various countries and sectors, is being considered and could be announced at the Qatar Grand Prix in three weeks.

Qatar would take a minority stake, leaving Audi with the majority ownership of the F1 team.

Audi has not commented on the speculation, but its interest in such a deal likely reflects the additional investment needed to overhaul Sauber’s headquarters in Hinwil.

Purchasing the Swiss team while building its own bespoke F1 engine facility at Audi’s Neuburg site has been costly. Based on the initial 75% agreement, acquiring the remaining 25% of Sauber likely cost around €600 million. The engine development will also likely incur a nine-figure cost, exceeding €1 billion.

Financing new developments in Hinwil through external investments would ease pressure at a time when Audi’s parent company, the Volkswagen Group, is taking drastic steps to cut costs, including closing factories and laying off thousands of workers.

Audi remains firm that its F1 project is not in jeopardy despite the broader challenges facing the group. However, any program under the control of an automaker is vulnerable to such variables, so while full control of Sauber was the preferred route, it may not be pragmatic.

Maintaining a majority stake would allow Audi to retain control and would likely have no impact on the team’s brand image. This aligns with the Qatar Investment Authority’s strategy of diversifying into non-national organizations, including Barclays and even the VW Group, meaning there is already a connection at this level.

The state is already heavily invested in F1 through the long-term agreement for the Qatar Grand Prix and the sponsorship of Qatar Airways. Qatar has also been linked to a potential bid for F1’s commercial rights several times over the past two years, though these offers have been rejected by Liberty Media.

While the investment may not be of the same scale, it is similar in principle to that of Mumtalakat, Bahrain’s sovereign wealth fund, which invests in McLaren: essentially, Qatar secures a low-responsibility, high-potential return F1 investment tied to a prestigious brand, as well as an alternative path into F1.

McLaren’s situation was unique for some time, but new investments in minority stakes in F1 teams have become increasingly common as the value of these teams has grown in recent years due to F1’s rising popularity and commercial success.

For example, Daimler owns only one-third of the Mercedes F1 team, with team principal Toto Wolff and INEOS owner Jim Ratcliffe each holding one-third.

The most significant sources of investment are funds from the United States and the Middle East.

Renault sold a 24% stake in Alpine F1 last year to a group of investors led by Otro Capital.

Having done the same with Arctos Partners at the same time, Aston Martin F1 is set to sell further shares in its team to two other American investment funds.

The Public Investment Fund, Saudi Arabia’s sovereign wealth fund, also holds rights to shares in Aston Martin F1. It is already an investor in the car manufacturer Aston Martin.