Audi commit to full 2008 season

Audi have committed to the rest of the 2008 American Le Mans Series with a two-car line-up.


Veteran duo Emanuele Pirro and Frank Biela will return to the team from round two at St Petersburg next month, while Lucas Luhr and Marco Werner will stay on for the remainder of the calendar in the second car.

The reigning LMP1 champions had hesitated over their ALMS programme after struggling to beat the LMP2 Penske Porsches in the fight for overall victories during 2007.

As Audi are the only full-time factory LMP1 team in the series, the ALMS officials chose not to impose the ACO's full range of performance restrictions on the LMP2 cars to ensure that there was still a battle for outright victory in the races.


Audi felt that this unfairly penalised their R10 TDi, but have now chosen to commit to the series despite their frustration over the rules.

"The American Le Mans Series is an excellent platform in America for an automobile manufacturer to compete in motorsport at a high-level with innovative technology," said the company's motorsport boss Dr Wolfgang Ullrich.

"We want to continue to use this platform and, more specifically, to support the diesel campaign in the USA.

"We will show fighting spirit and in spite of the situation with the regulations try to win."

Last year's ALMS LMP1 champions Allan McNish and Dindo Capello will switch to Audi's Le Mans Series programme in Europe this season, alongside Mike Rockenfeller and Alex Premat.

source: autosport.com - ALMS News: Audi commit to full 2008 season