F1 team bosses remain wary over potential Andretti entry

Toto Wolff, Zak Brown and Guenther Steiner have had their say on Andretti’s proposed F1 team, as they close in on confirmation of approval from the FIA.

Harvey Orgill_1

15 Sep 2023

A historic name in the motorsport world, Andretti have looked to make their mark on the F1 grid since the sport’s immense growth in the team’s homeland of America. After failing to purchase Sauber in 2021, they joined forces with Cadillac in January 2023 in an attempt to once again get into the paddock.

Representatives from the current 10 teams on the grid have remained in opposition of an 11th competitor for quite some time, with the $200 million entry fee often an issue discussed, as well as the potential value the team would need to bring to the sport.

Now, it's rumoured in the paddock that Andretti are as close as ever to completing their first step in making it to the grid, as they near confirmation of approval from the FIA.

“I think why F1 and the teams have survived in the last years is because we all stuck together," said Mercedes Team Principal Toto Wolff on the situation. "The FIA, FOM and the 10 teams, we need to protect the sport. We're holding this sensitive sport that's growing at the moment in our hands.

"And that's why the right decisions need to be taken all of us together, when it comes to, let's say, a mindset and then obviously the FIA and F1 when it comes to these decisions, because it's out of the teams' hands.

"But I would hope that [FIA president] Mohammed Ben Sulayem, and Stefano will take the right decisions for F1."

The trust or perhaps pressure put on leading figures in the sport was a common theme for other bosses when discussing the Andretti situation, as well as the change in the sport since the release of Formula 1: Drive to Survive on Netflix.

"I think the one thing I would say is the value of a F1 team and an entry from what it was five years ago”, said McLaren CEO Zak Brown. “The sport is worth substantially more, so I think that that element needs to be discussed."

Haas boss Guenther Steiner was in agreement with Brown and Wolff, in his trust of F1 officials and the impact of F1’s growth on such decisions: "I'm sure Stefano knows how to deal with this in our best interest.

“We put our faith in FOM to deal with it, and as Zak said teams are worth now a lot more than we were when we were deciding the Concorde Agreement in 2020, where some teams were struggling to stay in business, and were worth basically nothing. The market has changed."