F1 rules out 2025 or 2026 for the American Andretti outfit but keeps door open for the 2028 season; Andretti Cadillac "strongly disagrees" with the decision; F1 says "presence of an 11th team would not, on its own, provide value to the Championship"
Thursday 1 February 2024 00:16, UK
Formula 1 has rejected Andretti's bid to join the grid as an 11th team in the 2025 or 2026 seasons.
But the door remains ajar to a potential entry in 2028 for the American team.
Andretti's bid, which has been headed by former McLaren driver Michael Andretti and his father Mario, the 1978 world champion, had passed through the initial approval processes set out by the FIA, motorsport's governing body, in October but it also crucially required approval from F1 on the commercial merits of the application.
Formula One Management, the sport's commercial rights holder, announced its decision in a lengthy statement on Wednesday after several months of commercial assessments and outlined multiple reasons why it had concluded that "the presence of an 11th team would not, on its own, provide value to the Championship".
"The most significant way in which a new entrant would bring value is by being competitive," the F1 statement read.
"We do not believe that the applicant would be a competitive participant.
"The need for any new team to take a compulsory power unit supply, potentially over a period of several seasons, would be damaging to the prestige and standing of the Championship."
Mario Andretti later posted on X that he was "devastated" by the decision, while the Andretti outfit itself formally said in a statement that they "strongly disagree" with the outcome of F1's report.
F1's reasoning placed particular significance on the fact Andretti, who have partnered with luxury car brand Cadillac, would have entered F1 requiring a customer engine supply from one of the sport's existing manufacturers.
General Motors, which owns Cadillac, last November applied to become a power-unit manufacturer in F1 but not until 2028.
Offering potential hope for four years' time should Andretti apply again, F1 said it "would look differently on an application" for 2028 if General Motors were able to provide an engine.
"In this case there would be additional factors to consider in respect of the value that the Applicant would bring to the Championship, in particular in respect of bringing a prestigious new OEM to the sport as a PU supplier," added the F1 statement.
In its formal response on Wednesday evening, Andretti released a statement strongly disagreeing with the conclusions reached by Formula 1.
The statement said: "Andretti Cadillac has reviewed the information Formula One Management Limited has shared and strongly disagree with its contents.
"Andretti and Cadillac are two successful global motorsports organizations committed to placing a genuine American works team in F1, competing alongside the world's best.
"We are proud of the significant progress we have already made on developing a highly competitive car and power unit with an experienced team behind it, and our work continues at pace.
"Andretti Cadillac would also like to acknowledge and thank the fans who have expressed their support."
Outlining the process it went through to come to its final decision, F1 said that it "took account of the broad range of ways in which value could be provided, including value to fans, the prestige and reputational value of the sport, the competitive balance of the Championship and the sustainability goals of the sport".
"Any 11th team should show that its participation and involvement would bring a benefit to the Championship," read F1's statement.
"The most significant way in which a new entrant would bring value is by being competitive, in particular by competing for podiums and race wins. This would materially increase fan engagement and would also increase the value of the Championship in the eyes of key stakeholders and sources of revenue such as broadcasters and race promoters."
But on the question of likely competitiveness, F1 expressed concern that the sport's regulations changing significantly in 2026, with a new rules packaged headlined by all-new engines, that "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.
"The fact that the Applicant proposes to do so gives us reason to question their understanding of the scope of the challenge involved."
In the addition to the concerns about entering without full General Motors engine support - something which F1 noted that, even if that had been the case, "coming to the sport as a new PU manufacturer is also a huge challenge, with which major automotive manufacturers have struggled in the past" - the sport said an 11th entrant "would place an operational burden on race promoters" and that they could not "identify any material expected positive effect on CRH financial results, as a key indicator of the pure commercial value of the Championship".
And despite the Andretti family's status as one of motorsport's most famous racing names, F1 stated the belief that "while the Andretti name carries some recognition for F1 fans, our research indicates that F1 would bring value to the Andretti brand rather than the other way around".
The majority of F1's existing teams had publicly opposed the expansion of the grid on commercial grounds, arguing that Andretti would not bring sufficient added value and revenue to the sport to negate the loss of income with the prize pot being split 11 ways instead of 10.
It is understood that F1's existing 10 teams had no role to play in FOM's deliberations on the matter.
Speaking to Sky Sports F1 at last October's US GP, Michael Andretti said: "It's a mystery to me in some ways, why they [the teams] are pushing back.
"They say we're slicing the pie, but I think the point is, hopefully we bring in more than we're taking away, and we really believe that.
"If you look at the fan support on all of the surveys that have been done, we think that we're going to add to it, not take away."
F1's decision not to grant Andretti entry for 2025-2026 when the FIA had given them the green light is set to raise fresh questions about the current strength of the relationship between the Liberty Media-owned sport and governing body, whose president Mohammed Ben Sulayem had opened the new teams application process at the start of 2023 and strongly publicly backed Andretti's candidature.
"We asked the right questions to Cadillac and to Andretti and when they came back to us, there is no way we can resist them because the team ticked all the boxes. It is good for the sport," Ben Sulayem told Sky Sports in October.
"I am actually confident that they will go through."
Sky Sports have approached the FIA for comment.
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