13/02/2023
NEWS STORY
F1 CEO, Stefano Domenicali insists that the Andrettis are doing their cause to enter F1 no good by constantly running to the media.
While Mohammed Ben Sulayem's claim that the sport isn't worth the $20bn the Saudi sovereign wealth fund was said to have offered owners Liberty appeared to be the straw that broke the camel's back - no pun intended - the FIA president's stance on Andretti's bid to enter the sport certainly didn't help.
While F1 bosses and the majority of the teams insisted that ten teams is enough, the FIA president not only spoke in favour of the American bid, he began the process to welcome two new teams.
Now that Ben Sulayem is taking his hands off the wheel in terms of the day to day running of the sort, Andretti's best hope appears to be a change of heart from F1, however, the sport's CEO, Stefano Domenicali insists that the hopefuls are doing themselves no favours.
"First of all, we are very welcoming of everyone that is bringing value to the racing," he tells Sky Sports. "I think we need to respect everyone.
"There are teams like Mario and Michael Andretti being very vocal about their will to enter Formula 1," he continues. "But in my view it is not smart to say that teams are greedy.
"There are others that are much less vocal that would like to come into Formula 1, so there is a process to respect and we will make sure together with the FIA that the process will be respected."
Fact is however, that whatever you want to call it, the issue does appear to be about money, indeed, at a time the existing teams are seeking at least $600m in compensation for the loss of prize money that an eleventh team would mean, Red Bull boss, Christian Horner has admitted that the attitude towards the Andretti bid is purely down to cash.
"As with all these things, it ultimately boils down to... 'Well, who's going to pay for it?'" he told RACER last month. "And you can assume that the teams, if they're perceived to be the ones who are paying for it, or diluting their payments to accommodate it, of course it's not going to sit well.
"The two teams that are supporting it either have a partnership in the U.S. with them or are going to supply them an engine," he added, referring to Alpine and McLaren. "The other eight are saying: 'Well hang on, why should we dilute our element of the prize fund?'"
More recently the Briton suggested that Andretti consider buying an existing team, a move that would almost automatically see potential targets raise their asking price accordingly whilst also lumbering the newcomers with facilities and staff they almost certainly don't want.
"Red Bull Racing was Jaguar, which was Stewart Ford," he told the Daily Mail. "Look at Mercedes, that goes all the way back through Honda to British American Racing to Tyrell. Aston Martin go back to being Jordan. That has been the procedure for many years."
No sooner had Andretti announced its partnership with Cadillac last month, that F1 said that other potential teams were showing interest also.
"If all the elements are there, they will be very welcome," says Domenicali. "There are a lot of dimensions to consider and we don't have to overreact because someone is pushing the system. The process will be done seriously in the right way someone is shouting and someone is not shouting.
"I would have acted in a different way," adds the former Ferrari boss.
In the eyes of many, at a time F1 is enjoying unprecedented popularity in the US, bringing an American teams into the sport, especially a team with the racing pedigree of Andretti would appear to be a no-brainer.
"I would say we need to be prudent," insists Domenicali. "It may seem this is a personal negative attack on Andretti but this is not the case. We need to be serious and professional in evaluating all the elements."