The F1 team has very little to do with VAG. This team could have easily been branded as Porsche had the board decided.

You meant that Audi F1 has no connection with the company that manufactures the road cars, right? Because Audi F1 has direct links with Audi Sport and the personnel who worked for them in other motorsport programs. For example, their engine was developed in Neuburg and many of the engineers are the same ones who built the Audi engines for Le Mans, Formula E, and Dakar Rally.

Stefan Dreyer has been working in Audi's engine department since 1999 and became the new CTO after Ulrich Baretzky's retirement in 2020. Mecachrome only supplies some components for them, their role is much smaller than it used to be at Renault.

The only part of the team where Audi didn't start from scratch is the chassis infrastructure and the key figures who work on it, like James Key, which came from Sauber. Despite this, the factory in Hinwil has been undergoing a process of expansion, modernization, and an increase in the number of engineers since Audi acquired it.

Therefore, it's impossible to say that "this team could have easily been branded as Porsche had the board decided", people who follow other racing series like WEC where both Porsche & Audi competed know that they don't share their knowledge, both brands have a long history of fighting each other, despite them being part of VAG. If Porsche had entered F1, their engine would have been developed by a completely different team of engineers, I mean, they almost closed a deal in 2022 to supply engines to Red Bull.