Mario Andretti denies speculation surrounding his son

Last Updated on November 28 2024, 1:10 pm

Two years on from the FIA launching its application process for new competitors to join Formula One, General Motors has been approved to race from 2026 onwards. The FIA approved the Andretti Global application over a year ago, but it failed to gain approval from the Liberty media Formula One Management (FOM).

In the statement it said: “Our assessment process has established that the presence of an 11th team would not, on its own, provide value to the championship. The most significant way in which a new entrant would bring value is by being competitive. We do not believe that the applicant would be a competitive participant.”

Yet almost twelve months later FOM have done an about turn allowing the Andretti based organisation to compete from 2026. So what happened to change their minds?

 

 

 

 

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Andretti was up front about the fact their partner in GM/Cadillac would not be building their own power units until at least 2028 given the lead times the current providers have had in designing the new breed V6 Turbo hybrids.

So it appeared as though F1 was only prepared to allow in a team when they had procured a new engine manufacturer with a functional power unit. Now the notionally named “Cadillac” team which is in effect the Andretti built team of around 100 employees is approved for 2026 but they will race will probably a Ferrari power unit.

Things came to a head at the Miami Grand Prix when a number of US law makers had penned a letter to the US Justice Department accusing Formula One of anti competitive practices in their rejection of the FIA approved Andretti entry.

Add to this the fact the legendary Mario Andretti had been seen on Capitol Hill the weekend before which drove a furious Greg Maffei (CEO of Liberty Media) to accost the 84 year old racing legend while he was in conversation with FOM’s CEO Stefano Domenicali.

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Andretti insulted in Miami

“I was asked to go there,” Andretti was explaining to F1’s supremo of his visit to Capitol Hill.

“And just as I was trying to explain that to Stefano, Greg Maffei, Mr. Maffei, broke in the conversation and he said: ‘Mario, I want to tell you that I will do everything in my power to see that Michael [Andretti] never enters Formula 1’,” Mario revealed.

Michael Andretti bought a CART Indy racing outfit called “team green” in 2002 which he subsequently built into a global empire. The organisation now races in the Indycar series, Indy NXT, Formula E, Extreme E and has joint entries in IMSA and the Australian supercars series.

In just over 20 years the success Andretti has had is remarkable. In total the team has won the Indianpolis500 six times, the Indycar series four times and the form NXT named series indy Lights in 2008, 2009, 2019 and 2021.

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Andretti a global racing powerhouse

Andretti added the Formula E championship to its trophy cabinet in the recent 2022/23 season with Jake Dennis at the wheel. So Formula One appeared a natural step for the billion dollar value racing organisation.

However, Mario’s son Michael went about joining Formula One by shouting from the rooftops. He called the sport a cartel and nigh on demanded to be allowed to enter an F1 team. Clearly this did not go down well in the melting pot of politics that is the F1 paddock, although spat between the FIA and FOM saw the president of the former open an application process to join the sport.

Andretti was green lit several months later whilst FOM dragged their heels for another 6 months before rejecting the application – suggesting maybe Andretti and General Motors come back in 2028.

Clearly the long arm of the US Justice department has been in action behind the scenes, given the chief legal officer of some 20 years service with FOM left her role suddenly this September.

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Mystery of departing personnel

Maffei who insulted Mario Andretti in Miami was also recently announced to be stepping back from his role of nineteen years. Then to cap it all, Michael Andretti stepped back from his role with the Andretti organising leaving ‘partners at TWG Global’ – which is run by Dan Towriss in what appears to have been a concession to those who Michael upset in Formula One.

FOM had shot itself in the foot and the reason it gave for rejecting the Andretti application were laughable as Jim Jordan the head of the US Justice committee outlined in a letter to FOM.

It stated, ”When a sports league deviates from its rules and practices in a manner that reduces competition and depresses consumer interest in the product, the collusion may amount to anti-competitive conduct.”

Having demanded a number of documents from the FIA and FOM, the committee reasoned the reasons for the rejection were clearly a front. “The excuses put forward for denying Andretti Cadillac’s entry appear to be pretextual, arbitrary, and unrelated to Andretti Cadillac’s suitability to compete in Formula 1,” it stated. 

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US Justice Dept rejects FOM reasoning

“For example, Formula 1 alleged that a new team could only add value to Formula 1 by ‘competing for podiums and race wins’. However, the FIA had already analysed – and approved of – the technical capabilities of Andretti Cadillac to compete among current teams, and most current teams in Formula 1 do not meet Formula 1’s standard of regularly competing for ‘podiums and race wins’.”

Mario Andretti has now spoken for the first time since the FOM about turn over the team’s F1 application and despite the team now being referred to as the Cadillac-GM team most of the ground work will be undertaken by the Andretti operation.

Of course the events preceding the approval have led to speculation it was the removal of Michael Andretti from the team which saw the U-turn made possible. Now Mario addresses those claims explaining “it wasn’t just [about] Michael.”

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Mario speaks about his son Michael

“There’s no big issues that I see among the group here that would linger or anything else because, I guarantee ultimately it wasn’t just [about] Michael. It’s not that simple,” Andretti explained to Motorsport.com. 

“There were a lot of things going on, but it happened. It may have made it look like that was the key factor, but it wasn’t. One way or another, he might’ve stepped aside a little bit more about the day-to-day situation with them [anyway], so we’re not losing a beat anywhere by going forward here.

“I don’t know if there’s one thing that all of a sudden brought the thing to fruition. There seemed to be some personal things there that personally, I still do not understand. But it seemed like it came down to that.”

There will now be a race between Audi and Cadillac to prepare their race cars in time for 2026 and fans will be keen to see which of the organisations does the best job in building an F1 car.

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F1 circuits cut a bad deal

Historic European circuit to get shortened contract – This season two circuits entered the final year of their F1 contracts, but both Silverstone and Suzuka have now renewed into the future. The home of the first ever Formula One race in 1950 has agreed a new ten year deal which will see racing in the Northamptonshire countryside well into the next decade.

Suzuka meanwhile agreed only a five year deal, which is usually as sign F1 is demanding medium term improvements of the circuit. In a recent call with Liberty Media investors, F1’s CEO Stefano Domenicali claimed big changes were coming to the F1 calendar.

“For ’26 and beyond, we will have some news to share very, very soon regarding the possibility, in the mid-term, to rotate some European grands prix, and some other new options coming later. This is something we will clarify in due course.”… READ MORE