Forty years of Audi Sport: beauty and emotions in the name of innovation

On 10 October 1983 the adventure of Audi Sport was born. Forty years (and 400 sports titles) later, the House of the Four Rings presents the Italian premiere of the first Audi F1 prototypethe preview of what will be the single-seater with which the Brand will enter Formula 1 in 2026. A historic stage, which Audi has chosen to celebrate in Trento, in the evocative setting of Piazza Duomo, during the Sports Festival, with Fabrizio Longor, Director of Audi Italia, the Olympic champion Sofia Goggia and the mountaineer Herve Barmasse.

Forty years of beauty, which for Audi has always been linked to functionality. A simple concept, but perhaps too often forgotten, which Fabrizio Longo was keen to underline: «We have seen in many sectors how beauty today combines with technology if you can give it a soul in terms of functionality. In the way we conceive of cars, that technology that some sometimes define as superfluous is actually only excessive if it is unable to return concrete values. Otherwise, there is a wonderful harmony between technological innovation and beauty». Aesthetics and rationality are therefore two sides of the same coin and we must not give up either one or the other: it is not a question of having to reconcile the two parts, but of making them communicate with each other.

Beauty that is also present in sporting performance, in all those actions that allow you to best express yourself. And if for some it may be less focused on “aesthetics” in favor of greater effectiveness, for others it represents what everything comes from. «For a skier, beauty lies in being able to put one’s qualities on the track and make a route an expression of one’s character and one’s inner strength.»: this is the thought of Sofia Goggia, whose trajectories on skis are the greatest testimony to this: segmented, angular and not very curvilinear, but tremendously effective. On the other hand, however, for Hervè Barmasse everything is beauty because «the mountaineer looks at the mountain with the eyes of someone who wants to be amazed».

Forty years of innovation, a fundamental part of Audi’s DNA which has always seen technological evolution as the key to success, in sport and beyond. The latest example is represented by the Audi F1 Showcar presented in Trento: a new challenge for the Brand, from 2026 at the start of the FIA ​​Formula 1 World Championship, which will take to the track with a power unit specially developed. An ambitious project, which has the certified Audi Motorsport Competence Center in Neuburg as its nerve centre carbon neutral in terms of heat and energy supply, and expanded precisely to meet this important sporting commitment.

Innovation that represents a true compass for Audi. In fact, we cannot forget the important investment plan implemented by the House of the Four Rings in recent years. Significant, but at the same time highly risky, actions. «To allocate almost 30 billion in scenarios that are objectively vague, we must take responsibility. Today I would be less proud to talk about our successes if I wasn’t also sufficiently convinced that we are doing it right. These investments are not only linked to products, but also to factories: we aim to make them all decarbonised by 2025». Fabrizio Longo thus underlines Audi’s attention to the issue of sustainability. Targeted actions to reduce waste, which are redesigning industrial processes that have been active for over fifty years: a concrete example of What Audi chooses to be and to as intends to pursue its objectives.

Finally, there was also a reflection on electric cars, a topic that is as hot as it is not seriously discussed. «In Italy there is a lack of serious, informed and in-depth debate. We only have a contrast between those who are for and those who are against, and this doesn’t help». According to Fabrizio Longo, however, it is time to leave the discussions aside and start doing something concrete. «Technological innovations do not wait for legislators. They leave. You can’t stay still, because you’re just wasting time. We are working hard to try to provide concrete answers, but what we hope is to also see a serious institutional push so as not to have regrets in a few years. The industrial transformation is already underway and does not only concern electric cars, but all the related activities that are being generated around it.»