Audi’s legendary Le Mans program to end in 2016

We woke up to some rather sad—if not unexpected—news from Germany this morning. Audi's long-running and extremely successful endurance racing program will draw to a close at the end of this year, and its diesel-powered hybrid racecars will no longer compete at Le Mans (or anywhere else). Instead, the company will concentrate on Formula E, the electric vehicle racing series, although that program will not race until 2018.

The decision was announced to Audi's motorsports department earlier on Wednesday morning by the company's chairman, Rupert Stadler. "We’re going to contest the race for the future on electric power. As our production cars are becoming increasingly electric, our motorsport cars, as Audi’s technological spearheads, have to even more so," he said.

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