Last Updated on February 1 2024, 5:25 am

As the Formula One car launches for 2024 are around the corner, the commercial rights owners of the sport have decided the reject the Andretti F1 application to become the eleventh team on the grid. This is a somewhat surprising approach given the FIA which holds legal governance for the sport had given the American team’s application the green light over three months ago.

In an unusual statement the Liberty Media owned FOM declared it did not believe any team was capable of joining Formula One in 2025 given just one year later substantial regulation changes mean the cars will then need to be completely redesigned from scratch.

 

 

 

Liberty Media reject Andretti bid

“We do not believe that there is a basis for any new applicant to be admitted in 2025 given that this would involve a novice entrant building two completely different cars in its first two years of existence,” F1’s statement said. “The fact that the applicant proposes to do so gives us reason to question their understanding of the scope of the challenge involved.”

Andretti were keen to join in 2025 because under the current Concorde agreement their entry fee which would be shared amongst the existing teams would be just $200m. The following year a new Concorde Agreement would be in place and a number of current team principals have suggested the fee should be increased to around $600m based upon the recent entrance fees charged in certain American based franchise sports.

So its obvious why FOM want to kill of the Andretti hopes of joining for next season – more money.

Yet FOM have boxed clever by not dismissing the Andretti entry out of hand but wish to kick it down the road until their partner General Motors via brand Cadillac can build one of the new V6 turbo hybrid power units set to debut in 2026. Gm have preciously suggested they will be in a position to provide one of the new units by 2028, although the experience of Honda joining after the other manufacturers had a year’s head start should be a cautionary tale for the American based global auto manufacturer.

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Circular argument doesn’t stand up

However, by highlighting the new chassis regulations for 2026, FOM has kind shot its own argument in the foot. Were Andretti to ditch their 2025 aspirations and focus on 2026, they would have exactly the same amount of time as the other 11 to produce a car which is as yet unspecified by the FIA.

Toto Wolff has led the opposition to the Andretti bid to join Formula One and has regularly questioned the added value they bring to the sport. Andretti had penciled in a deal with Alpine to supply them with power units until the GM/Cadillac product was up and running in 2028.

Now FOM acknowledge there is added value should GM produce an F1 power unit, but of course this means the Andretti bid powered by Alpine does not meet the standard set. But of course McLaren and Williams will be powered by Mercedes and so why an Andretti team propelled by Renault?

Probably the most experienced commentator in Formula One and ex-F1 driver, Martin Brundle, believes this decision has put the FIA and FOM on a collision course. It is the FIA who sanction entrants for each season and the FIA who decide whether a team has met the criteria to join one of motorsports most elite clubs.

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Brundle predicts loggerheads with FIA

”As a Formula 1 fan, as a commentator, I would love there to be an 11th and indeed a 12th team on the grid, not least because drivers like Verstappen, Leclerc, Lando Norris, and others [like] George Russell at Mercedes have signed up for a very long time to stay in the same teams.”

As Brundle notes, the sport is changing and drivers are singing ever longer contracts creating inertia for new the up and coming racers of the future. Four more seats in F1 wold alleviate the current blockages on new drivers and an 11th and 12th team would deliver this kind of added value.

“This does put the FIA absolutely head-to-head with Formula One Management and Liberty Media, the financial rights holders, because the FIA said yes, Formula 1 have said no to what they often refer to in that document, it’s just come out as an 11th team, rather than necessarily Andretti.”

FIA president Mohammed Ben Sulayem has found himself at loggerheads with the new commercial owners over the past two years and was forced to reminds the F1 “belongs to the FIA” it is “only rented out.”

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F1 legal battle “inevitable”

The position taken by FOM appears to overstep their remit and make incursions into the domain of the FIA. It is the FIA who decided whether a team is competent enough to compete I Formula One and not the job of FOM.

In a back handed way this statement Staes clearly FOM does not believes the FIA has done a proper job in assessing the Andretti application and rather than deal with the commercial implications of that decision, has decided to fundamentally challenge its outcome.

F1 business expert Mark Gallagher now believes a legal. Battle may be inevitable. TJ13 reported last week him stating:

“My fear is that if Formula 1 [FOM] rejects Andretti – they’ll come up with all the reasons why they don’t want to have it – I think we could see a lawsuit develop pretty quickly because Liberty’s an American company, Formula 1 is listed on the New York Stock Exchange, Andretti has raised a huge amount of money, relatively speaking, in the United States.

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Decision ‘anti competitive practive’

“And if he [Michael Andretti] has got General Motors lined up behind him, it’s not impossible to see a classic American legal case developed to say: ‘We should be allowed in and there’s no good grounds on which you should be stopping us. It’s an anti competitive to basically run the sport as an elite club.”

Both European law where F1’s constitution was ruled upon and the USA legal system are strongly opposed to anti competitive practices. Liberty Media’s statement and reasons for declining the Andretti entry into the sport appear shallow and at times contradictory and as Gallagher states it is inevitable a legal challenge will soon be mounted.

Of course if the plan is to merely prevent Andretti from joining the sport for $200m in 2025 and force them to pay a new amount yet to be agreed, it is probable any ruling in favour of Andretti would see the incoherent FOM position as stalling tactics and rule one the entrance fee regardless of any new Concorde Agreement position. 

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