At the beginning of October, the FIA officially approved the Andretti team’s application to participate in Formula 1. However, other applications, including Hitech GP, were rejected. During the race weekend in Abu Dhabi it turned out that Hitech GP did not like this decision by the federation and the team decided to sue the FIA.
The exact reason for the lawsuit is unknown, but expert British journalist Joe Savard writes that it concerns a demand for the FIA to provide evidence that Andretti’s offer was more attractive than the Hitech GP’s offer.
Hitech GP was rumored to be willing to pay a $600 million entry fee; at the time of submitting the application, the model of their car was already blown into a wind tunnel, and in the summer a contract was signed with Mercedes for the supply of power plants.
As Andretti continues to wait for the FOM’s decision, filing a lawsuit will be an additional negative factor for Michael Andretti’s project. Formula 1 management may suspend the processing of the application, which is explained by a legal procedure between the FIA and Hitech GP. If the court sides with Hitech GP, and Andretti will already be competing in Formula 1 by then, the British team can sue the championship management, and Formula 1 will try to prevent this.
Court hearings between the FIA and Hitech GP could take years, which plays into the hands of Formula 1, which does not really want to see Michael Andretti’s team among the participants.
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.
