Published on September 22, 2023 at 4:50 p.m. Mathieu Warnier
While the FIA launched a call for tenders at the start of the year aimed at integrating an eleventh or even a twelfth team into F1, only one of the four applications submitted would be able to meet expectations. This is the one driven by the Andretti team with the support of General Motors.
Could the Andretti family be close to the goal? For several years, the latter has planned to expand its activities in Formula 1. This could have been done last year but the negotiations for the takeover of the Sauber structure failed after a disagreement on the amount of the operation between Michael Andretti and Finn Rausing, owner of the team based in Hinwil and currently called Alfa Romeo. A failure which opened the door to the arrival of Audi alongside the team founded by Peter Sauber at the end of the 1980s. However, this did not slow down the ambitions of the Andretti family, which did not has repeatedly stated that it is ready to pay the 200 million dollars (187.5 million euros) required for any new entrant, a sum which would then be distributed among the ten other teams involved in the world championship. An attitude which has caused many enmities in the paddock, with the majority of the teams opposed to the idea of dividing the cake into eleven parts instead of ten and the boss of the discipline Stefano Domenicali who did not hide his point of view. Confronted with this, the president of the International Automobile Federation (FIA) Mohamed Ben Sulayem reacted and launched an official procedure at the start of the year whose objective is to identify projects capable of integrating Formula 1 by 2026.
Andretti well placed but not yet a winner
A call for tenders whose results are expected within a few weeks but, according to the indiscretions of the German specialist site Motorsport-Total, the current trend would go in the direction of the Andretti. Indeed, according to these rumors, the FIA would have received no less than four applications, three of which would have already been rejected because they were unable to respond favorably to the evaluation put in place. Already involved in Formula 2 and Formula 3, the British teams Hitech and Carlin would be part of it as would the Asian project LKYSUNZ, whose managers recently affirmed being ready to pay 600 million dollars (563 million euros) to convince the paddock to open the door for him. The only project deemed sufficiently solid to go through the cumbersome procedure leading to an arrival in F1 would be that carried by the Andretti family and which benefits from the significant support of the General Motors group. The latter, although it would initially be a generous partner via its Cadillac brand, could develop its own engine by 2027. If the FIA has not yet communicated on the result of the call for offers, this will only remain a step since it will then be necessary to convince F1 that this project will be beneficial for the discipline and all its components.
