Q: I believe that Formula One Management’s rejection of the Andretti application was also a hedge. It appears as if the Haas team is in disarray and that Mr. Haas is starting to lose his taste for spending huge amounts of money with little or no return, especially this year. And with Chris Medland’s reports on the divergent views within Haas on the direction of the team is going, should Haas decide to pull the plug, Andretti would be well positioned to scoop up the Haas team and save the sole U.S. team in the championship.
So the way I see it, the delay until 2028 allows Haas four years to decide what it wants to be when it grows up, and if Mr. Haas decides he’s had enough, FOM has a ready-made American replacement waiting in the wings. Response?
Fred Hammond
CM: That’s not a crazy theory by any stretch, and it would solve a problem for FOM, but I think it’s more likely to be just one of many potential outcomes that remain open by FOM kicking the can so far down the road.
Clearly FOM’s ideal scenario is to have 10 very strong teams. Someone has to be weakest, and right now Haas is emerging in that spot. But as mentioned in my answer to Elliott, it could prove a very expensive purchase just for the entry given the way Andretti Cadillac wants to do things, and paying around $600m for a new team is still likely to be Andretti’s preference over more like $1b for a complex operation you’re going to break apart (and not likely make a return on).
Q: You will get lots of screaming letters about F1 turning down Andretti at this time. For those who actually read the FOM response, it was honest. They have the most successful management of the sport and huge growth. Countries begging for new races. Old venues promoters put up or get replaced with new tracks. Andretti needed more than a mocked-up car in the old Toyota wind tunnel. They are building a building and hiring a few folks. But no motor deal and trying to do two different spec cars for 2025 and then 2026 was not going to be competitive. Herta the driver has no Super License. It would bring more to Andretti than F1 until they prove themselves.
Ford, Audi and others are making 2026 engines. 2028 for GM is not a serious engine commitment. Andretti failed to meet FOM in London face to face in December to present plans. A compromise could have been reached, perhaps like 2026.
Andretti should have bought Sauber. Aston Martin and Williams also bought failing teams recently. Write a big check and buy a team so the learning curve is not so big. Spyker, Caterham, Marussia, even Super Aguri… lots of failed F1 teams. Even Honda backed Super Aguri, but that team still failed.
Go back to the drawing board and do it right, Andretti. Even Penske failed at F1. Simply being American doesn’t do it. Just ask Scott Speed. Andretti counted on an FIA versus FOM/Liberty Media fight. Hope they don’t lower themselves to sue their way in. Doesn’t speak highly of Andretti’s management or tactics. We don’t need another backmarker like Haas.
C B, Leland, NC
CM: You’re right about the angry responses! But a lot of that clearly comes from a desire to see F1 continue to be an open series where new teams can try and take on the established ones like it was in the past. They can either succeed or fail, but it was always a fascinating and exciting aspect of the sport.
It also has become clear that Andretti didn’t intentionally turn down the chance of a face-to-face meeting; it simply never received the email and FOM didn’t follow up. And 2025 was no longer the target given how long the decision-making process was taking, although it’s also true that Andretti did say it was aiming for it originally and that was still a big ask at that point.
I don’t know if Sauber had a price in mind that would have given Andretti full control, but when it nearly did that deal a few years ago it was the lack of total ownership that was the problem, but that was reflective of the price — which I believe was around $300m. That would have been an absolute steal for an F1 team, let’s be honest.
I agree that FOM was pretty honest even if some of its arguments were flimsy, because it basically said it doesn’t think Andretti globally moves the needle enough for F1 to make it worth allowing an 11th entry, and that the promise of Andretti Cadillac with a GM PU is what is most attractive. The basic answer was that 2028 sounds very good, so if GM follows through and becomes a full PU supplier for Andretti then it would look upon the entry differently, but why accept less than that beforehand?
Q: I cannot express how angry I feel, and I’ve got to express it somewhere. I have been an F1 fan since the days of Graham Hill and Jim Clark. No longer. The treatment of Michael Andretti’s effort is appalling and unforgivable. So totally arrogant and elitist. And downright insulting. They want American money but not an American team. The wording of the rejection is unforgivably insulting. I feel so badly for Mario, who’s given so much to global racing his entire life.
You can reapply in a few years when it’ll cost a billion dollars to join our elitist club. And maybe we’ll approve you if GM wants to spend massive amounts of money. But we really only want them, not you.
The hell with them. My criticisms of IndyCar have just disappeared.
Jeffrey Brown, Bernardsville, NJ
CM: I actually responded to that same accusation of “They want American money but not an American team” from Graham Rahal a few years ago when Colton Herta’s Super License exemption request was rejected, and definitely don’t think that’s the case.
F1 absolutely wants American money, but just like it wants all money. It races in some very questionable places because it wants the money, and teams from all over the world were rejected out of hand and didn’t get anywhere near as close as Andretti Cadillac has so far.
The main reason it’s about money is if a team enters at the current anti-dilution fee of $200m, and spends $300m on infrastructure, it has an F1 team that is instantly worth a billion and could sell it. Do I think that’s Andretti’s plan? No, but that shows that the anti-dilution fee is currently not reflective of the value of an F1 team, and allowing an entry at that level would devalue the existing teams, and therefore F1 itself.
One of the main aspects of the rejection at this point is to ensure a new entrant is committed to being part of the sport and growing the sport, and forcing that commitment by contributing significant finance just like any new Major League franchise has to do. F1 made that stance clear long before Andretti was put forward as the only potential entrant that was capable of joining the grid by the FIA.