The eleventh team – the American Andretti Formula Racing – is strongly pushing for the royalty of motor sports, the World Series of Formula Ones.
The international automobile association FIA announced on Monday that it has accepted Andretti Formula Racing as a new formula team candidate. There are currently ten teams competing in the F1 manufacturers’ series.
The news is a big step towards a new F1 team, although it does not yet guarantee that Andretti’s three-year application process will return one of racing’s most famous motorsport brands back to the top.
Mario Andretti won the 1978 F1 championship and his son Michael Andretti drove 13 F1 races in the 1993 season.
Andretti Global and partner General Motors still have to prove their commercial worth to F1 rights holder Liberty Media, as well as the current F1 teams, who have previously been staunchly opposed to expanding the current 20-car series.
The new team would be able to participate in sharing a series of joint income pots worth billions of euros. Each new entrant would take a slice of everyone else’s income.
Based on the current F1 competition and money distribution agreement, valid until 2025, the new team should pay a one-time compensation of 200 million dollars for the team place. It would bring 20 million to each team.
Autosport’s insider sources said at the beginning of the year that the teams want to increase the “entry amount” to at least 600 million dollars.
– Andretti Formula Racing LLC’s application will proceed to the next stage of the application process, said the head of the FIA Mohammed Ben Sulayem.
The US companies Andretti Global and General Motors said last time on January 5 that they were aiming to bring a new team – with the working name Andretti Cadillac – to the Formula One World Series.
Andretti Global CEO Michael Andretti, 60, has described the venture between his company and General Motors (GM) as “a true American F1 bid.”
– General Motors and Andretti share a common racing heritage. We have the opportunity to combine our passion and dedication to build a true American F1 bid, Andretti stated in January 2023.
Chairman of General Motors Mark Reuss has highlighted in the media how the company has a “long and rich history in motorsports”.
– Cadillac and F1 both have growing global interest. Our brand has a foundation in motorsports for more than a century. We can bring this special American innovation and design formulas to the F1 teams, Reuss declared.
Sources: AP – Reuters