Q: I just read the article about F1 rejecting Michael Andretti’s application. It has struck me that F1 has just given Michael Andretti, Mario, and all the lifelong Andretti fans generally a huge stick in the eye.
For them to state as a major reason the fear that Andretti would not be competitive? Have half the teams in F1 been given notices that they had best finish in the top five at least once during a season or face suspension or worse? The fact is that half the cars in Formula 1 serve little purpose but to fill the grid race after race. They know they cannot win, the fans know they cannot win, and the very people who penned the report regarding concern that Andretti wouldn’t be competitive know most of their teams cannot win.
This violates the very essence of motor racing since the first race was held over a century earlier. How do they know if Andretti would be competitive? They won’t even allow them to run!
I wonder what this means to Michael Andretti and his whole corporation fiscally. Will the combined total of his enterprise support the infrastructure being built? I wonder if Mario, who has always touted Formula 1 as the pinnacle, will continue to express such sentiments when F1 has spat on his family legend.
James Harrison, Overland Park, KA
CM: Now as much as I’ve offered the balanced view of why the door isn’t just going to be left open for any new team just because of a romantic name, this I totally agree with, James.
Since when was it F1’s job to try and guess how good or bad a team might be? Sure, you’ve got to draw a line somewhere, but this is meant to be a sport first and foremost, and in that case it’s down to a team to prove its competitiveness on the track.The FIA has a 107% rule it can implement on safety grounds if ever a team is that far off, but given how prescriptive F1 rules are now, I don’t think Andretti would fall foul of that.
It’s not just Andretti, either. It’s offensive to all of the experienced F1 personnel that the team has hired. Nick Chester was the technical director of Renault and is now in the same role at Andretti — is F1 saying it thinks he’s not good enough at his job? Is it going to veto all F1 team hires from now on?
It’s a slippery slope. Commercial reasons I totally get, but the FIA is there to analyze the sporting ones and I feel like FOM overstepped its remit with that comment.
Q: I’m sure you have gotten a lot of questions and/or responses concerning F1 rejecting the Andretti GM bid. Is it possible they were rejected because Andretti has not won an IndyCar title since 2012? Is there an assumption that if they are unable to win championships in IndyCar that they are likely unable to compete with the back markers much less at the front of the grid?
Damion
CM: I don’t think so to be honest, Damion — that’s never been a reason given when I’ve asked questions of FOM or anyone linked to the Andretti project. It is a good reminder that an iconic name doesn’t automatically translate to success, but I’m not led to believe Andretti ever pointed to IndyCar performances in its submission or that FOM then focused on that.
Q: I can’t say that I’m surprised about the Andretti decision. The longer this got dragged out, the slimmer the chances got, in my opinion. I am more and more convinced that this is all about money and nothing else. You mentioned the next Concorde Agreement and its timing. I’d put money on the dilution fee taking a significant jump; to the point that Andretti could get priced out. Clearly most of the teams either don’t want an 11th team or don’t want Andretti and that could be one or the other, but I would bet on both. Also, given how long this is going to get drawn out, GM may lose interest.
I think this passage in your article was interesting:
“But if any of those aspects fall down, or the open questioning of Andretti’s ability to be competitive makes a potential future relationship untenable, then even that door is going to close very quickly.”
The problem is that five out of the 10 teams are not really competitive currently. The sixth-place team mustered only two podiums all season, and there were none for the following four teams. To me, competitiveness means running at the front. Clearly that is not the case for half of the field.
Also, from my observation, the Andrettis don’t do anything by halves. They have been actively working towards 2025, but this implies that they don’t understand things:
“We do not believe that there is a basis for any new applicant to be admitted in 2025 given that this would involve a novice entrant building two completely different cars in its first two years of existence,” F1 stated. “The fact that the applicant proposes to do so gives us reason to question their understanding of the scope of the challenge involved.”
Seems to me that FOM should just admit that it is a closed shop. Further, if they are throwing out this BS now, I don’t see a change of perspective for 2028 as they will likely just invent something else.
Anyway, this is all very disappointing to me. Outside of FOM, what are you hearing from the general public about all this?
Don Hopings, Cathedral City, CA
CM: There’s two ways of answering that. For the real “general public” I think we saw how insignificant the Andretti bid really is when Lewis Hamilton announced he was joining Ferrari. That permeated into general conversation outside of just sports fans. But for F1 fans, it’s clear the vast majority want an 11th team, and they’re happy with it being Andretti.
The thing is, as fans we don’t have to worry about the business side. On a very basic level, if you let any team in now at $200m then you devalue a sport that has grown massively since it put that figure in place, and so your owners and bosses who want you to make it as profitable as possible are going to be unhappy.
And don’t overlook the fact that F1 is so attractive to Andretti Cadillac right now because the sport is booming both globally and in the U.S. — allowing it to secure the financial partners that want to be a part of it — and it makes sense from a business perspective for them to try and get in while there’s a lower fee in place than there really should be. Michael Andretti is not stupid, and nor are the backers for the team. If its entry had been approved right now, it would instantly have an asset worth far more than it cost to create.
On the competitive part too, I feel that’s an unfair argument. You can’t have everyone being competitive all the time. Someone has to finish last, and Haas was one of the most competitive teams to ever finish bottom of the standings in F1’s history with all of its Q3 appearances and multiple points being scored.
Having McLaren and Aston Martin join the front-runners in scoring regular podiums is what made it even harder for teams to score any points too (given five were that bit quicker and there’s only 10 point-scoring places). It’s all relative, and while it must be noted it’s in part down to the regulations, this is the most competitive grid F1 has ever had.