Quote Originally Posted by RWD164
I think the R10 is a good car, but they would be taken to the next level in my eyes if they had some real competition. peugeot took it to them this year, but reliability hurt them. If someone like a Porsche or Volkswagen or Ferrari put some cash into an LMP1 car, I don't think the Audi would be so dominant.
Here is the issue..... VW and Audi are under the same group that makes those decisions and it wouldn't make financial sense to market TDI with two different LMP1 cars.

Porsche can be considered the tip of this umbrella as they will have 51% of VW group by the end of this year. It's just too much money to throw at a sport that you already dominate. Besides, Porsche isn't in desperate need to bring back their racing pedegree as they are still king in LMP2 in ALMS and ELMS.

Ferrari is busy with their F1 program. (Something they fund without the help of Fiat) and are using Maserati to handle the higher levels of sports car and GT racing duties. The Vitaphone MC12 just won the Spa 12 hours. But the biggest hurdle for Ferrari/Maserati is the fact that the diesels are the cars to beat and i doubt the Prancing Horse and the Trident have any desire to build a diesel.

The mark that has the higgest chance to take the fight to Audi is Jaguar. With them being purchaced by TATA, Ratan TATA has said he would like to see Jaguar return to the pinnacle of sports car racing but it is unclear which class. This is all speculation though.