03/11/2023
NEWS STORY
Michael Andretti claims that one of the reasons the teams are objecting to his entry to F1 is because they don't think the American outfit knows what it is doing.
While the FIA has rubber stamped his entry, there remains stiff opposition from F1 itself and the majority of the teams.
Though most of this appears to be about money, and how an 'extra' team would dilute the prize and sponsorship funds, various other factors have been cited including logistics and safety.
Earlier this year Andretti, who is already facing a three-fold hike in terms of his entry fee, cited greed as the main factor in the continued opposition to his bid, but the American subsequently rowed back on his comment.
Now, as F1 mulls his bid, and with no idea of how long the assessment phase will take, Andretti claims that those objecting simply believe his team is not up to it despite achieving success in various other formulae.
"First of all, they think that we're a bunch of hillbillies over here," he said, according to ESPN. "And we don't know what we're doing.
"But because we have a lot of experience in racing, we might come at it from a different angle than everybody else, and it might work.
"We have got to realise what we're getting into," he admitted. "We're getting into a lot of politics and things like that.
"It's just the way it is. And we'll just deal with it," he insisted. "I didn't think it would be this hard to get in, but we'll prove our weight to get in."
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