Despite triumphing for the eighth time in nine years in the celebrated Le Mans 24 Hours last weekend – thereby cementing its status as the third-most successful manufacturer in the long history of the race dubbed 'the toughest in the world', just one victory shy of second-placed Ferrari – Audi has re-iterated that it is still not ready to move into Formula 1.

It has been rumoured that the Ingolstadt concern spent as much as €200 million on its challenge for glory in the 2008 version of the round-the-clock La Sarthe classic.

Whispers also suggest that having such a big budget at its disposal may pave the way for an arrival in the top flight in the not-too distant future – possibly as an engine supplier to Red Bull Racing, a first step towards a fully-fledged Audi Formula 1 team, much as fellow German marque BMW did with Williams from 1999, before buying out Sauber at the end of 2005.

Centre to the speculation is the fact that Audi's parent company Volkswagen already has a relationship with Red Bull, the two companies working together on such projects as the VW Touareg rally car.

With Ultimate Motorsport confirming its interest in purchasing a stake in Scuderia Toro Rosso [see separate story – click here], it has been hinted that current STR co-owner Gerhard Berger could head-up Audi's involvement in F1, having close links with both former Volkswagen Group chairman Bernd Pischetsrieder and Red Bull energy drinks magnate Dietrich Mateschitz.

Despite such rumours, however, Audi chairman Rupert Stadler underlined in an interview with German news agency SID that: “F1 is still not an issue for us.”