“That’s a statement” - Has Wolff changed his tune on Andretti’s F1 bid?
Andretti announced that they would be joining forces with American car giant General Motors earlier this month through its luxury car brand, Cadillac.
Andretti have been making a lot of noise about their hopes of getting onto the grid, making a number of F1 paddock appearances as they try to get the FIA and FOM, including existing team bosses on board.
One big criticism of Andretti’s project has been Wolff, questioning how much value a new team like them could offer.
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With F1 booming, the majority of teams are concerned that an additional 11th or 12th team could “dilute” the sport and impact the amount of prize money they’d receive.
Speaking about the news, Wolff conceded that the Andretti-Cadillac partnership was a positive one.
"Cadillac and GM, that's a statement. Certainly them joining forces with Andretti is definitely a positive, gives it another angle that may or may not be beneficial for F1," Wolff said.
"But nobody would ever question GM or Cadillac’s pedigree in motorsport and obviously as a global auto company."
James Vowles - Williams’ new team principal after deciding to leave Mercedes - said that F1 is wanting to grow the sport but feels they need to understand better how Andretti-Cadillac can help grow the sport in the future.
"We are always open to the sport growing. The truth behind it is the sport is becoming more and more successful financially," Vowles explained. "Whoever joins in that environment, needs to bring with it, effectively, the growth that is required in order for everyone else to be in a better position, or at least a neutral position.
"I think that's been the statement from the outset, from the beginning. There are a lot of lovely things about Andretti and about Cadillac, it just needs to have good understanding of how it will grow the sport, in what way, and what the growth will be."
