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F1’s American flirtation
3 years ago
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I have to confess that I was and am a huge fan of both of them as drivers. Mario remains one of my top three heroes alongside Jim Clark and Alain Prost, and whilst Michael’s racing career may not boast the stats of some others, he was brilliant during the late 1980s and early 1990s – a golden period for North American single-seater racing.
This, of course, means I am biased when I say that I’d like to see them on the F1 grid. But you’ll be glad to know there’s rather more to it than that and that my rationale goes beyond just pure fandom. First of all, we don’t have enough seats on the grid for the deserving young drivers from F2 to all break in. The fact that Oscar Piastri, Nyck De Vries and Felipe Drugovich all had or will have to spend a year on the sidelines after becoming F2 champions shows the extent of that bottleneck. With drivers entering the grid at a younger average age than ever before, that bottleneck is just going to become tighter all the time.
Secondly, as much as the old school European F1 fans might want to turn their noses up at American audiences, we can’t deny the fact that, in commercial terms as well as others, F1 has become truly successful for the first time ever on that side of the pond. With all respect to Haas, despite their presence on the grid now for a few years, it’s not been able to create a partisan feeling amongst the fanbase there. Let’s be honest, Guenther Steiner’s appearances on Netflix have done more for their PR than any accomplishments on-track!
"I recall seeing Michael and Mario visiting each of the teams, trying to muster support for their entry. By all accounts only McLaren and Alpine seemed to offer their signatures at the time
There’s a certain national pride, too, with Ford and GM being the ‘true American’ brands. Allied to arguably the most popular name in American motor racing, the Andretti-GM partnership will fire up a dormant fanbase which has thus far only shown a passing interest in categories that also turn right on a race track.
The other teams of course know all of this but they are – understandably – thinking about their own interests. Ultimately, the teams are all running a business for themselves and as soon as you allow any other fish into the pond, it means that you’ve got to share a bit of your food with them. The great debate at the moment is whether or not any extra income generated by having Andretti on the grid will offset any potential losses created by dividing the pie 11 ways rather than 10.
This is hard to answer as the increase in income cannot be guaranteed or measured in the short term. Therefore, in the last Concorde agreement, the teams all agreed that any new entrant would have to pay a joining fee of $200 million, which would be distributed to the incumbents as a means of offsetting any loss of income. This seemed like a huge number when it was all signed off a few years ago and one that would dissuade any new interest. However, the recent explosion in interest and income on a global level means the teams all see their franchise values to be significantly higher than four years ago, and think that the entry figure needs to be much higher still.
"I am a huge fan of both of them as drivers. Mario remains one of my top three heroes alongside Jim Clark and Alain Prost, and whilst Michael’s racing career may not boast the stats of some others, he was brilliant during the late 1980s and early 1990s – a golden period for North American single-seater racing"
The Andrettis have been adamant in saying they’re not just trying to enter at a time where the entry fee is still $200 million, but the fact remains the true value of the franchise is probably three times as much, so they could flip it and make a quick few bucks.
The public mud slinging isn’t something I’ve particularly enjoyed. Michael has been very vocal in the press about the other teams not letting Andretti in. There seems to be a groundswell of support and sympathy in the US media and fans as if this were some anti-American stance from the F1 paddock, rather than actually thinking about it as pure financial protectionism from the teams. I’m fairly confident that if the team coming in was from India, Australia, Antarctica or Timbuktu, the existing stakeholders would still be fighting back just as hard.
Creating a public war while needing the approval and sign off from the other teams as well as the Formula 1 organisation is probably not helpful. Back at the Miami Grand Prix, I recall seeing Michael and Mario visiting each of the teams, trying to muster support for their entry. By all accounts only McLaren and Alpine seemed to offer their signatures at the time.
Michael Andretti in conversation with Red Bull's Christian Horner
Bubbling away underneath all of this is the war brewing between the FIA and Formula 1. In theory, the roles of both organisations are pretty clearly defined wherein the FIA controls the regulatory side of the sport and F1 owns the commercial rights. The division of income is handled by F1 and therefore this is a negotiation that theoretically only F1 needs to be managing with Andretti and the other teams. However, it’s become clear that the FIA President Mohammed Ben Sulayem has no intention of being a mere bystander in this process, wading into the debate with plenty of support for the new bid. At a time when FIA-F1 relations seem to be at the lowest level since the Jean-Marie Balestre-FISA era in the 1980s, this is going to be another fascinating plot to watch unfold.
My view is that ultimately the whole sport would benefit from having the team on the grid and therefore a middle ground needs to be found. Thus far, F1 boss Stefano Domenicali has been relatively quiet on the subject, but with three races in the US for at least the medium term future, I’ll be very surprised if he’s not lobbying very hard indeed to make the mooted Andretti-GM entry work.
