Manufacturing giant Schaeffler confirmed in Berlin that it is developing the ABT team’s powertrain for season two, in a move that makes a renaming of the race team likely.

The group, already a sponsor of this year’s Audi Sport ABT team, employs 82,000 people and has a €12billion turnover, built on its core business of producing bearings that find their way into everything from cars to ski lifts. That’s some partner to have.

The company confirmed in a recent press release that it would handle powertrain development for the racing team, including the motor and transmission:

As the exclusive technology partner of Team ABT Sportsline, the company is developing an electric motor of its own for the second season and will be shaping the entire powertrain system of the motor and transmission for the race car. Schaeffler supplies the complete electric motor and power electronics and the application is subsequently performed by ABT. “We will also be involved in designing the transmission. It will look different because it has to match the motor,” says Professor Peter Gutzmer. His company is intensively involved in the testing stage as well: “We’re going to jointly run all the tests and the integration of the components into the vehicle with ABT. This includes static trials, crash tests, endurance runs and of course the on-track tests.”

The relationship means that it is likely that the team now known as Audi Sport ABT will be renamed ABT Schaeffler (or something similar). The Audi Sport tag was carried across from the sister DTM team, but Audi has no real involvement in the Formula E operation apart from sanctioning use of factory drivers. It’s thought that Audi is unlikely to be interested in joining the new series in the foreseeable future, but other brands from its VW parent group may be more open to the sport as VW works to define its e-mobility strategy.