Michael Andretti has hit out at current teams for allegedly stopping Andretti-Cadillac from entering F1.
Andretti has announced plans to establish an F1 team in partnership with General Motors and Cadillac. Despite an online interview and the FIA’s Mohammed bin Suleyem showing his support for the team, the response from F1 has been lukewarm.
Of the current F1 teams, only Alpine and McLaren have expressed support for Andretti. F1 teams don’t have an official say in who will or won’t participate, but it seems the F1 team wants to support existing F1 teams and is less than enthusiastic about Andretti’s bid.
In 2021, the so-called Concorde Agreement stipulated that new entrants to F1 would have to pay an anti-dilution fee of $200 million to compensate for lost revenue for existing F1 teams.
For Andretti, the $200 million funding is fine and available, but there is still some resistance from the F1 teams.
“It’s all about the money,” Michael Andretti told Forbes.
“First of all, they think they can dilute one tenth of the prize money, but they are very greedy to get all the American sponsors as well. I don’t think what is best for growth the series as a whole.”
F1 and F1 team owners prevent Andretti from joining, but he has a powerful ally in Mohamed bin Sulayem. Earlier this week, the president of the FIA reiterated that there is enough space on the grid for additional teams.
“That’s the difference between President Mohammed’s point of view and the team owner’s point of view,” explained Michael Andretti.
“In F1, the owners are looking out for themselves, not what is best for the series. Chairman Mohamed is looking to the future of the sport. Mohamed understands that. He is a racer. Yes, we understand that we need one or two more teams in the series.”
Category: F1 / Andretti
