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"  Photo by Bernard Asset About as regular as sunrise come rumors that Volkswagen will get involved in Formula 1. The rumors are back...but are they serious this time? Crash.net has reported that Peter Sauber has refused to be drawn out about discussions between his team and VW...and what better confirmation is there in the rumor world than a denial? Why would VW want to jump into the money hole that F1 can become for an automaker? Did anyone say Toyota, Honda, BMW and Jaguar? In part because F1 is very big in many developing nations that in turn are burgeoning automotive markets. With the Western marketing &amp;quot;maturing,&amp;quot; it can&amp;#039;t hurt to have your foot \u2013 make that wheel \u2013 in the door in these developing regions. It&amp;#039;s usually assumed that VW would not be the branding on a corporate F1 car, but likely Audi. Some suggest it should be VW&amp;#039;s other mass-market prestige brand, Porsche. Here&amp;#039;s a thought. Audi has won 11 of the last 13 24 Hours of Le Mans and gets some credit for Bentley&amp;#039;s win in 2003. Audi is running the risk of becoming so dominant in that event it could take away from the impact of winning. Last automaker to do that? Porsche, which won 10 of 12 Le Mans between 1976-1987. And who returns to the French classic in 2014 to take on take on Audi? VW corporate cousin Porsche. It would make sense for Audi to bow out then and head for F1, possibly starting as an engine provider and later buying into Sauber to create its own car. Remember too that VW group chairman Ferdinand Pi\u00EBch (godfather of the Porsche 917) has often stated that he isn&amp;#039;t in favor of VW in F1. All this gets the rumor mill going...what do you think? VW in or out? No related posts. "^^<http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#string>
<http://www.roadandtrack.com/new-cars/news/a9069/vw-in-f1-37230/>