We hate when rumors like the one we posted last week turn out to be true, Audi has confirmed in a press release that this will be the final season of their Le Mans endurance racing program. Few can argue that Audi’s presence at Le Mans and its associated championships represent one of the most dominant racing dynasties in history. However, with corporate stablemates Porsche firmly planted at the helm of the FIA World Endurance Championship, Audi will move on in 2017 to develop a Formula E program.

Audi’s record at Le Mans is sterling: The Audi R8R debuted in 1999 with a third-place finish at the 24 Hours of Le Mans. In the time since, Audi racked up 13 victories in their 18 Le Mans starts with a podium in every single Le Mans since 1999. Those victories included the first ever at Le Mans for a diesel engine and the first for a hybrid.
After picking up their inaugural victory in 2000, Audi were only defeated four times with three of those (Bentley, 2003; Porsche, 2015 and 2016) coming at the hands of corporate partners under the Volkswagen Auto Group. The only non-VAG entries to beat them were Peugeot in 2009 and BMW in Audi’s 1999 debut.

Along the way, Audi have created some true legends of the sport, including Tom “Mr. Le Mans” Kristensen, who had seven of his nine career Le Mans wins in Audis. The first three of those came as co-driver with Frank Biela and Emanuele Pirro, both of whom racked up five Le Mans wins with Audi. Scottish driver Allan McNish developed his bulldog reputation as one of the most determined sports car racers of all time as a member of Audi’s endurance program.

The announcement comes toward the tail end of a disappointing year for Audi. Their 2016 diesel-hybrid R18 E-Tron Quattro has failed to keep pace with Porsche and at Le Mans, Audi was uncharacteristically uncompetitive. However, they kept their podium streak intact in the closing minutes of the race when Toyota’s race-leading TS050 failed at the start of the final lap.

Several hints were given throughout the year, including when the lead Audi car’s engineer Leena Gade moved to Bentley to lead that company’s Continental GT3 customer-racing program. Audi also announced their entry into Formula E recently and some speculated that the costs of developing an all-electric race car and a top-class endurance racer were incompatible. No word has been announced on the fate of the six Audi LMP1 drivers, although several already drive for assorted Formula E programs.

Audi’s departure leaves just two factory programs, Toyota and Porsche, in the WEC’s LMP1 class. Ironically, those manufacturers left Le Mans racing in or around 1999 when Audi arrived, though they returned in 2012 (Toyota) and 2014 (Porsche). The ByKolles Racing CLM P1/01 will be the only privateer to give the WEC five full-eason LMP1 entries, down from nine in 2016.

In the release, Audi also confirmed their commitment to their DTM program but remained non-committal on their World RallyCross Championship efforts, where Mattias Ekström won the championship in an Audi.

Audi pushed endurance racing into the spotlight many times throughout its 18 seasons and trips to Le Mans. Their last victory in 2013 came at the end of a difficult race that saw the death of Aston Martin Racing driver Allan Simonsen. Simonsen’s Danish countryman Tom Kristensen took the checkered flag and somberly dedicated the win, also Kristensen’s last, to Simonsen.

Perhaps no win was more dramatic than Audi’s 2011 victory, in which two of the three team cars were absolutely annihilated in enormous crashes that shredded the R18s but left drivers Allan McNish and Mike Rockenfeller unharmed. The third Audi, in the hands of Audi’s young team, narrowly brought home the win against hometown favorites Peugeot. That race was captured in the second edition of the Jason Statham-narrated Truth in 24 documentary.