Michael Andretti’s attempt to enter F1 with his eponymous team is meeting stiff resistance. Although the FIA (Fédération Internationale de l’Automobile) approved the entry of Andretti and the support of a major car manufacturer, General Motors, existing F1 teams were concerned about the loss of revenue, and FOM’s commercial negotiations (Formula One Management) have also not made any progress.
This isn’t the first time Andretti’s F1 aspirations have met opposition. In 1986, 23-year-old Michael Andretti was making his mark in the CART IndyCar Series. However, political conflicts kept him away from the vacant F1 seat. What prevented Andretti from entering the race was the governing body then known as FISA. Then, as now, the decision undermined F1’s efforts to increase its visibility in the American market. Andretti could have made his F1 debut in Detroit in 1986. Andretti made his CART debut in late 1983 after winning Formula Super Vee and Formula Mondial. While his father Mario, F1 world champion in 1978, won the CART title, he did well the following year, finishing 7th in his first full year of racing. The 1986 season started off promisingly for Michael Andretti. In the season opener at Phoenix, he led more laps than anyone before the engine problem, and did the same to win at Long Beach. After winning the fourth round in Milwaukee, a week later in Portland he took the lead at the final corner, but ran out of fuel before the finish line and Mario won by seven hundredths of a second. However, the young Andretti had undoubtedly established himself as a real favorite in a series that rivals F1 in terms of competitiveness. He collected points in every race and was top of the points standings. On the same weekend, F1 raced at the Villeneuve circuit in Canada. Patrick Tambay, driver of the American team Haas (no relation to the current team of the same name), suffered a serious accident during the morning warm-up, injuring his leg. FISA cleared Berg to compete, but not Andretti, so Tambay was excluded. With the American round of the championship a week away, it was clear that Haas needed a replacement for the Detroit race. Mario Andretti turned down the opportunity. The last time he competed in a Grand Prix was four years ago, when he was 46 years old. But his son was leading the CART series in his middle years and seemed like the perfect choice, especially for the American Motorized American Team (Ford) at the heart of the American auto industry. The only problem was that Michael Andretti didn’t have a super license and FISA wouldn’t issue him one. However, they allowed Canadian driver Allen Berg to make his Ocella debut the same weekend. He had competed in the Mexican Formula K series the year before and the year before, finishing second to Johnny Dumfries in British F3. The FIA currently uses a complex points system to determine who can obtain a superlicence. However, it is difficult to take the decision to remove Andretti at face value considering the inexperienced Berg was admitted. There is no doubt that FISA saw CART as a serious threat to the most important series in the North American market. Four years earlier, F1 had run three races in America, but these had been reduced to just one. At the time, Ferrari was considering entering CART and even built a test chassis and engine. However, excluding talented American drivers has not improved F1’s status in the United States. Haas owner Karl Haas was unimpressed by FISA’s decision to bar Andretti from entering F1, pointing out that very few CART stars have obtained a superlicence. “You could go a step further and say that if all the American drivers can’t compete in F1, it’s not a real world championship.” Thirty-five years later, Andretti IndyCar driver Colton Herta faced a similar situation. Red Bull tried to move him to AlphaTauri last year, but he lacked super-licence points and the FIA refused to grant an exception. The modern IndyCar series may not be a rival to F1 like CART, but the FIA’s low compensation to its drivers smacks of favoritism towards F1’s feeder series, Formula 2 and Formula 3. FISA was unwilling to include Andretti in the 1986 American Grand Prix, but then F1 commercial director Bernie Ecclestone was ready. Ecclestone, who ran the Brabham team at the time, said: “I would have liked to have put it on one of my cars.” Instead, Haas brought back another American driver, Eddie Cheever. Eddie Cheever impressed by taking 10th place on the grid ahead of 1980 world champion Alan Jones. Both drivers had steering problems mid-race and retired halfway through the remaining distance. Andretti had to wait another seven years before making his F1 debut with McLaren. By then, he had amassed dozens of victories in CART and won the title in 1991. More importantly, F1 had lost some of its best drivers and needed a star. Andretti struggled to find success in 1993 and left before the end of the season. His one-off start in 1986 may have led to an earlier, more successful move. But that wasn’t going to happen with Haas. The team had already lost its main sponsor and was heading for retirement. But for Michael Andretti, as he fights to win a place for his team on the F1 grid, history is a reminder that being the son of a champion does not necessarily open the doors to Grand Prix racing. And given that F1 wants to succeed in the American market, it’s a strange way to do it.
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