Audi continues to talk to IRL about global FIA engine

Dr. Ullrich told Gordon Kirby at Petit LeMans this past weekend that Audi is continuing to talk to the IRL about its new formula for 2012. He said Audi may be interested in competing if the IRL's new rules embrace the FIA's 'global engine'–a four-cylinder which can be turbocharged and raced in various forms across a broad range of categories from F1 to sports cars, Indy cars and rallying. It will be interesting to see if this dream is able to navigate the many agendas that drive worldwide motorsport's numerous categories and emerge in a uniformed form.

"We are talking," Dr. Ullrich said about the IRL's new formula. "It comes with the FIA's idea of the global engine concept which as you know is under development. It looks positive and if they end up in two or three years where there is an engine configuration available that you can race more or less in all the bigger series then it's going to be quite efficient for a group like ours to be able to do some different racing activities with the same basic engine. It would be very efficient."