Dieselgate has not quashed the brand's desire to prove itself in F1

Despite Volkwagen Group's financial setbacks from Dieselgate, Audi is setting its sights high—possibly even on Formula One. German publication spox.com (via f1i.com) reports that an emissary from Audi is being sent this Friday to Paris to influence Formula One's planned engine regulations for 2022 onward. It was initially assumed that Audi canned its Blancpain World Endurance Championship efforts after the diesel scandal came to light—despite having several successful years—but now it looks like it may have done so in preparation for an upward move to F1.

Rumors of VAG wishing to join Formula One have been making their rounds for years, with the company itself denouncing the claims on at least one occasion to Autosport. The Autosport article also makes a second curious distinction: "the Volkswagen Group will not enter Formula 1 until the ownership of the sport and the technical regulations are settled." This statement was made before the American media conglomerate, Liberty Media, bought out the rights to the sport in late 2016, which means the former half of VAG's concerns with entering the sport have been appeased.

One question, however, does remain. Does Audi, upon entering the sport, try to build a new team from the group up, à la Haas F1, or does it partner with an existing team—the way Honda did? The dissolution of its WEC efforts saw valuable members of its motorsports team catch outward-bound flights to other disciplines of motorsport. One name associated with this was Jörg Zander, who was the Head of Technology at Audi Sport, and was tasked with the success of the WEC team. After the team met a sad fate after the conclusion of the 2016 season, Zander made a flight to familiar ground at Sauber F1, where he had been chief designer during some of the team's halcyon days of BMW Sauber.

Now, there is no guarantee that Audi and Zander will seek each other out again, to form a Sauber Audi partnership with which to compete in the 2022 F1 season. Sauber has never been the most successful outfit, so Audi may instead seek out a more successful team like Williams, McLaren, Force India, or Red Bull to aid in its F1 efforts. Given Zander's ability in constructing competitive cars, however, it won't be unsurprising if Audi pursues a pairing with Sauber because of old ties. Time will tell

Mercedes has admitted that the weight of its 2017 Formula 1 car is an area that needs work on, as it bids to bounce back from defeat at the Australian Grand Prix.

Ferrari's Sebastian Vettel came out on top at Albert Park after a finely-poised F1 season opener that was effectively swung by Lewis Hamilton's tyre degradation not being as good as his rival's.

Although the tyre usage of the car has been singled out by Hamilton as a key area, one other issue that has come to light is the weight of the car.

With components having been bulked up this year because of the extra forces coming from the higher cornering speeds, plus engine parts being more robust now that there are only four power units for the campaign, the weight of the Mercedes is understood to have crept over the 728kg minimum limit.

The extra weight not only costs laptime, but teams like to be well under the minimum weight restriction with their basic car so that they can then position ballast in the right places to help with handling.

While Mercedes boss Toto Wolff would not confirm a report from Auto Motor Und Sport that the car was 5kg over the 728kg target, he did say that efforts were being made to bring the weight down.

"I don't want to go too much into detail but it's an area we can definitely improve," explained Wolff.

"With new regulations and the size of the cars, you need to balance out all the time between performance parts and the weight. And that's an ongoing exercise which we are doing."

Mercedes is not the only team that is facing headaches regarding weight.

Red Bull is understood to have found itself right at the weight limit thanks to the extra 5kg it has had to carry with Renault reverting to its 2016 MGU-K for the start of the campaign.

One of the reasons why Red Bull did not pursue a more complex suspension system after the FIA clampdown was because the weight of the design had started creeping up.

Force India too had big concerns about the weight of its car – ordering its drivers to go on diets after testing to help – but thinks it can address matters by the Bahrain Grand Prix.

Deputy team principal Bob Fernley told Motorsport.com: "We're already okay from a weight point.

"We're actually underweight but we're not enough underweight, so by Bahrain we will have enough of a variance there to be able to get the ballast where we want it. It's only a ballast issue."