Audi Sport’s Ulrich Baretzky retires

[TDIMeister]

Audi Sport’s Ulrich Baretzky retires

...it would be his pioneering work with diesel that sealed Baretzky’s legacy. Recalling when he first suggested to the Audi board that the team should take advantage of new rules at Le Mans that allowed diesels, Baretzky said, “I went to them and told them I think we should run a diesel at Le Mans. They looked at me and told me, ‘You’re a good man, but you should not drink so much!’”

Ultimately, he would prevail, and Audi’s diesels, the R10, R15 and finally R18, would go on to secure eight Le Mans victories. Though still convinced diesel has a valid place in endurance racing, he admits he was less enamored with the arrival of hybrids.

Other reading: http://forums.tdiclub.com/showthread.php?p=1931611&highlight=baretzky#post1931611

 

[Matt-98AHU]

I do wonder if Audi's large scale pullout from racing as a whole played a role in him now retiring. He simply doesn't have much interesting things to do anymore since Audi is not spending beaucoup Euros in racing at the moment as fallout from dieselgate.

Loved hearing a few interviews of him over the years. Just seemed like an excited character about the work he does, the engines he creates. Also seemed to have a realistic grasp on "cannot have infinite resources on a finite planet," and had some good views on how to reduce usage of at least fuel, and concept proved in particular with the stats on the 2006 R10 TDI before they reduced fuel tank capacity of the diesels. The stats comparing fuel burned vs. distance driven vs speed of the fastest of the R8 LMP900 era Le Mans races vs. that first R10 were pretty astounding. Wish I could find that old magazine article with the stats now.