FIA president Mohammed bin Sulayem does not believe Formula 1 will reject Andretti Global’s federation-approved application to create an 11th world championship team with the backing of General Motors.
The fate of the project of Michael Andretti and his business partners from Cadillac, the premium division of General Motors, now lies in the hands of Formula One Management (FOM) and Stefano Domenicali, the president and CEO of Formula 1, who will judge in to what extent the emergence of a new team will increase the commercial value of the championship.
At the same time, the majority of traditional participants are opposed to the arrival of another competitor, because if Andretti Formula Racing’s application is approved at FOM level, it will mean that the prize money will have to be divided not into ten, but into ten. 11 parts.
According to the FIA president, he does not understand the reasons why Formula 1 could reject Andretti Cadillac’s application.
“Let’s ask ourselves: why should Michael Andretti and GM support teams? “I don’t understand it,” Mohammed bin Sulayem told Australian publication Speedcafe. – Do teams have voting rights when discussing the registration of a new team? They are part of this sport and everyone has the right to express their feelings, but how can you say no to General Motors? I don’t understand on what basis.
The FIA is concerned with the sporting side, the FOM is concerned with the financial side, but can the FOM refuse? After all, we’re talking about the largest American automaker partnering with Liberty Media, one of the largest companies – don’t they see that? When we talk about business, this offers good business prospects.”
The current Agreement of Consent allows Formula 1 to have a maximum of twelve teams, so the federation president added: “As far as I have heard from lawyers, FOM can be refused if they are not satisfied with the financial component. But the license to participate in the championship is issued by the FIA, so the Andretti team will appear at the start even if they do not receive any prize money. But I don’t think everything will turn out that way.
Personally, I am optimistic that FOM will not refuse Andretti, although nothing can be ruled out. I just hope they don’t say no…”
Source: F1 News
I am Christopher Clyde, an experienced journalist and content writer with a passion for sports. I have been writing about Formula 1 news for the past five years and am currently employed as an author at athletistic.com, one of the top sports websites in the US.
