In a nondescript German factory corridor, bright shafts of light break through the gaps in a shutter. Suddenly the corrugated metal door starts to rise as the dazzling white beams bursts forth, causing the small crowd assembled in the passageway to take a step and shield their eyes. 

All that’s missing is the Also Sprach Zarathustra theme from 2001: A Space Odyssey to accompany what promised for a second to be a seismic moment, but all ends in a bit of an anticlimax.

Revealed is a few studious, bespectacled engineers who turn round to stare at us in mild annoyance, before going back to their work without saying a word.

Still, we’re in the middle of something historic here. Motor Sport has been invited to Audi’s famous Neuburg motor sport facility to take a sneak peek behind the scenes as the German marque goes flat out to get its hugely complex, 1.6-litre hybrid engine ready for the Formula 1 season opener in March. The engineers in front of us are carefully constructing the beating heart of the silver machine.

It’s from this building that Audi has conquered Le Mans, WRC, the Dakar Rally and more: out of all the brands that have competed anywhere but modern F1, it’s surely the most successful. Now though, over 80 years since it reigned supreme in pre-war grand prix racing as Auto Union, Audi is set to join the world championship – and intent on doing things its own way.

Our factory tour is a precursor to the marque announcing itself on the world stage with a glitzy livery launch for the 2026 F1 car, dubbed the R26, nearby that evening.

At the event, the clink of champagne glasses is brutally interrupted by the eviscerating roar of a V16 engine, as a 1930s Auto Union C-type tears across a vast expanse of asphalt before pulling up outside the giant marquee.

It’s handy having an immense motor sport history to fall back on when leveraging your PR shindig. Group B rally monsters, LMP1 prototypes and rally-raid machines are used to ferry in Audi legends such as Mr Le Mans himself Tom Kristensen, the WRC’s only female winner Michèle Mouton and all-round race ace Hans-Joachim Stuck, each giving a regal wave to the crowd from the red carpet.

Despite all the razzmatazz, it’s clear Audi is also trying to keep a lid on expectations. “Mistakes will happen, but learning from them is what drives transformation,” says head of F1 project Mattia Binotto, adding that while “the goal is clear”, there is no question of overnight success. According to the former Ferrari team principal the team intends to fight for championships by 2030. “That journey takes time, the right people and a mindset of continuous improvement.”

The car itself is silver with dashes of bare carbon and ‘Audi red’. As well as the complex 2026 hybrid engine having a near 50-50 split of around 1000bhp between internal combustion and electric power, active aerodynamics feature on the front and rear of a car which will be both smaller and lighter than the current generation.

Though Audi has had a three-and-a-half year run-up to building this car after buying Sauber in 2022, proceedings have not been smooth. Midway through 2024 the board sacked the original management team of Andreas Seidl and Oliver Hoffmann after being unhappy with progress. On track the race team was a failing operation too, eventually finishing the season in last position with just four points.

Binotto, recently having departed as Ferrari’s Scuderia boss, and Jonathan Wheatley, the long-time Red Bull sporting director, were brought in to right the ship. Sauber has since improved with this season being its best in 12 years, but will the feelgood factor transfer carry it through 2026? The bosses are hoping so.

When asked about the new ruleset, Binotto admits that they are so complex that almost no one knows what’s going to happen on track in 2026 – least of all Audi. The only vague promise is that a large performance spread across the field is likely.

“All the parameters we knew before are not true any more,” he says. “What was important before in terms of performance, may change today or tomorrow. For decades we have fine-tuned our tools around the regulations, so we know what’s going to be fast and what’s important to be fast. That’s the biggest change for the future.

“What will be more important is a question mark, because if you ask our tools today, they may give you an answer, but I think the reality and the facts may be different when we start racing.”

On the ground in the factory the enormity of the task that Audi faces – and the potential for it all to go horribly wrong – really hits home.

Audi F1’s chief operating officer Christian Foyer tells us that the demand in terms of sheer quantity is far more than anything it ever experienced in sports cars, Formula E or Dakar. Neuburg has been asked to produce the 50-100 F1 engines needed for next year and has “aggressively” increased its staff numbers to do so.

The team is split between the engine department in Neuburg with about 450 personnel and a car and chassis department based in Hinwil, Switzerland, which employs between 700 and 900 depending where the season is up to. There’s a smaller satellite unit operating out of Bicester to utilise talent that doesn’t fancy leaving the UK’s motor sport valley just yet.

“We believe that the actual racing will be improved through the new regulations”

To create the test bench centre which forms part of Neuburg’s gigantic recent increase, 33 prefabricated containers were stacked up on one another. Teams are normally restricted to around 400 hours a season of engine dyno running, so Audi has created a one-cylinder version of its engine that it can first test for an unlimited amount of time.

Time really is of the essence, but try telling that to the engineers. Just two people build each power unit, It’s a tricky job keeping track of which components have gone where, while working quickly but with the utmost care. The aforementioned room in which they work has vast windows to let in as much natural light as possible to illuminate the task.

During our visit to Germany in mid-November the first pre-season test was still two months away.

Foyer admits that the brand’s expertise in the electrical element from running in sports cars, Dakar and Formula E has come in useful, but that the internal combustion end of the deal is proving trickier. “We have nothing to fear, but we are six years behind everyone else,” he says.

Audi is quite literally burning the midnight (engine) oil as it works around the clock to be ready for the start of the F1 season. One room contains an intriguing machine snappily called an inductively coupled plasma analyser, from which a curious green flame emanates. It conflagrates the black stuff at 6000˚C, testing for any impurities.

Elsewhere various precious metals are broken down in research for their usefulness, while electronics boffins with furrowed brows clutch large battery packs, their lab coats billowing as they rush past.

The whole place has a whiff of chaos and creation about it – in the most Germanic, organised way possible, naturally.

Will Audi make it in time? Binotto is still an engineer at heart, and while at Ferrari oversaw the introduction of KERS in 2009 and the first hybrid turbo units five years later. He says he relishes the chance of a new technological problem to solve.

“[The new F1 regs] are the biggest change in 30 years at least,” he says. “Is it good or bad?

“Myself, I believe it’s a great challenge. I think all technicians across the teams at the moment are enjoying some new change of regulations.

“We may have heard some criticism, but what I can see on drivers’ comments, they’re starting to enjoy it. I’m sure it will be, at the end, a good show because we believe that the actual racing will be improved through the new regulations.

“We may need some patience at the start, because big changes may bring gaps between teams, but certainly there will be a very quick catch-up from all the teams, and I’m expecting those rules may be adapted if required.

“That’s part of the normal process. In every season the FIA has always adapted to needs, and that may happen again.”

Audi has succeeded almost everywhere it’s competed. And yet, in all its glorious 126-year history, F1 will be the greatest test it has faced yet. Judging by all we’ve seen so far, this German powerhouse is more than up for the battle. Whether it will succeed is another question.