Furthermore, this time around there was a brand-new manufacturer in Audi joining F1, having never built an F1 engine in their history. General trackside manager and chief engineer Shintaro Orihara now reveals: “Our [internal combustion] engine performance is definitely poor compared to other manufacturers. So probably the most important point to improve now is our engine performance because, as I mentioned, the gap is quite huge.” Orihara is candid in his Motorsport.com interview: “Without improving our combustion engine performance… let’s say, if we improve energy management, that doesn’t help if the engine performance is poor. But still our main focus point is the engine performance, the combustion engine.”