Andretti Global: Why a New US Project Stuck

During the days of the race weekend in Miami, the topic of the possible appearance of a new American team in Formula 1 again attracted attention, although not because any progress was made in the Michael Andretti project.

We quoted the opinion of Toto Wolff, as well as Liberty Media CEO Greg Maffei, who question the need to increase the number of participants in the championship. The bottom line is that the application submitted to the FIA ​​on behalf of Andretti Global is still motionless, though time is ticking.

According to the UK edition of The Race, it seems that the authors of the new project have more and more reasons for disappointment and frustration. Of the teams backing Andretti’s pledges, only McLaren and Alpine F1 have spoken out openly, while McLaren Racing head Zack Brown believes the rest’s skeptical position is defined only by selfish considerations.

It is difficult to argue with this, as the economy of Formula 1 teams is directly related to their share of the financial pie, which is shared by the owners of the championship, and as this share is clearly defined in terms of percentage, is the increase in the number of teams means that it will have to be divided not by ten, but by eleven.

What then is the logic of McLaren and Alpine management when they talk about their willingness to support the Andretti project?

The fact is that Zach Brown has a longstanding business relationship with Michael Andretti – it is no coincidence that McLaren promised to arrange tests behind the wheel of their Formula 1 car for Colton Herta, a talented and promising racer who plays for Andretti Autosport in IndyCar. And Alpine is poised to provide its future team with its power plants, although it hasn’t been officially announced yet.

That. In both cases we can speak of a certain degree of interest. At the same time, the author of the text in The Race draws attention to several points related to the desire of Michael Andretti’s company to break through in Formula 1. First of all, no one formally invited her there, because neither the organizers of the championship, nor the FIA ​​said it was ready to consider new applications from potential participants.

Last year Andretti tried to take control of Sauber Motorsport, whose team plays in the championship under the name Alfa Romeo, but the owners of the Swiss company almost at the last minute refused to sell it. Only after that, the conversation about the Andretti Global project started, but apparently the Andretti clan, ie Michael and his legendary father, Mario Andretti, world champion in 1978, did not even try to enlist the support of the current Formula 1 teams.

And the championship contenders are not at all convinced that the emergence of a new American team will really pay off in some form that will make up for their inevitable financial losses. In any case, no one has seen Andretti’s business plan.

Theoretically, if this project is provided with generous funding, which is taken over by foreign sponsors, it can gradually become successful. On the other hand, the US Haas F1 team has been competing in the championship since 2016, but cannot boast much support from corporate America.

Regardless, the decision whether or not to give the green light to the Andretti Global project will depend on the FIA ​​and on Formula 1’s leadership. Of course, at some point existing teams have to have their say, and the problem is that an increase in the number of participants in the championship is impossible without their unanimous support.

But first, a fundamental decision has to be made “at the top”, and now we can talk about the first signs of maneuvers behind the scenes, because it is certainly no coincidence that Christian Horner, the head of Red Bull Racing, hinted that the full responsibility rests with Liberty Media: the owners of the championship must be of economic interest to him participants, and not to reduce the usual level of payments.

Therefore, Horner expressed the consensus when he made it clear that if the Liberty thought the arrival of an eleventh team was worthwhile they should resign themselves to the need to increase payments to the existing ten i.e. go for it in the initial phase and compensate then the costs – if Andretti Global proves to be a really worthwhile acquisition, and further developments confirm this.

Anyway, Formula 1 has long been a closed club and any candidate to join has to prove they deserve it. But most often this process takes place behind the scenes, and the public discussion about Michael Andretti’s project is explained only by the fact that the authors themselves are trying to draw more attention to it.

Maybe you can get some support from the near-racing community with such a slightly off-the-beaten-track tactic, but the fate of the project certainly doesn’t depend on it.