Audi Sport racing academy &gt; Audi driving experience &gt; Audi Malta

Summary of the first year

Successful début year: Audi driving experience extended its portfolio in 2016 and for the first time supported three young racing drivers in their career – including their first successes on the racetrack.

In the 2016 season, for the first time Audi driving experience offered a top-class sponsorship programme for talented young drivers. Three young drivers – Sheldon van der Linde, Nicklas Nielsen and Vivien Keszthelyi – received comprehensive training in the course of the season. In winter training in Austria, ice driving in Finland or test drives on European racing circuits, they were prepared for the subsequent race meetings.

“Professional motorsport is about much more than just driving fast,” says coordinator Sepp Haider. “You also have to cut a good figure when appearing in public and be able to talk to engineers in detail about the setup of the racing car. In the Audi Sport racing academy we have created an excellent programme to support and encourage the motorsport stars of tomorrow in their initial development.” The programme has been created on several levels to match the experience of the drivers. The sponsored drivers are given specific targets and are supported by an experienced mentor, permanently assigned to them, for any questions or problems they may have.

For the three drivers of the Audi Sport racing academy the comprehensive preparation was followed by their first race meetings. And the début season of the new project already brought the first successes. 17-year-old South African Sheldon van der Linde and Dane Nicklas Nielsen, two years his senior, competed in the Audi Sport TT Cup and as rookies they actually still had the title in sight before the season finale.

Nielsen, who had celebrated his first overall victory on the circuit in the sand dunes of Zandvoort, secured the rookie title and took third place in the overall classification.

Sheldon van der Linde even managed to take the top spot on the podium a total of four times in the 2016 season, ending up in second place in the rookie rankings and fourth overall in the Audi Sport TT Cup.

16-year-old Vivien Keszthelyi competed in the Hungarian HTCC in an Audi TT cup race car and ended the season in first place.

Following the successes of its début season, the Audi Sport racing academy is set to extend its programme to include GT3 racing.

The specified fuel consumption and emission data have been determind according to the measurement procedures prescribed by law. Since 1st September 2017, certain new vehicles are already being type-approved according to the Worldwide Harmonized Light Vehicles Test Procedure (WLTP), a more realistic test procedure for measuring fuel consumption and CO2 emissions. Starting on September 1st 2018, the New European Driving Cycle (NEDC) will be replaced by the WLTP in stages. Owing to the more realistic test conditions, the fuel consumption and CO2 emissions measured according to the WLTP will, in many cases, be higher than those measured according to the NEDC. Therefore, the usage of CO2 emission values measured according to WLTP for vehicle taxation from 1st September 2018 on can cause changes in this regard as well. For further information on the differences between the WLTP and NEDC, please visit www.audi.de/wltp.

We are currently still required by law to state the NEDC figures. In the case of new vehicles which have been type-approved according to the WLTP, the NEDC figures are derived from the WLTP data. It is possible to specify the WLTP figures voluntarily in addition until such times as this is required by law. In cases where the NEDC figures are specified as value ranges, these do not refer to a particular individual vehicle and do not constitute part of the sales offering. They are intended exclusively as a means of comparison between different vehicle types. Additional equipment and accessories (e.g. add-on parts, different tyre formats, etc.) may change the relevant vehicle parameters, such as weight, rolling resistance and aerodynamics, and, in conjunction with weather and traffic conditions and individual driving style, may affect fuel consumption, electrical power consumption, CO2 emissions and the performance figures for the vehicle. Further information on official fuel consumption figures and the official specific CO₂ emissions of new passenger cars can be found in the guide “Information on the fuel consumption, CO₂ emissions and electricity consumption of new cars”, which is available free of charge at all sales dealerships and from DAT Deutsche Automobil Treuhand GmbH, Hellmuth-Hirth-Strasse 1, 73760 Ostfildern-Scharnhausen, Germany (www.dat.de).