FIA called out on bias over license criteria – Fans and Formula One pundits alike were almost universal in their support for the expansion of the number of teams competing in the sport. The Andretti proposal to become the eleventh team on the grid was given the green light by the FIA almost eighteen months ago, but found its route to competition blocked by the Liberty Media owned Formula One Management (FOM) group.

The exclusion came to the attention of the US Justice department which coincidentally had recently fined the NFL almost $5 billion for anti-competitive practices. A shuffle of personnel at the top of Liberty Media and Andretti Racing saw a fast track agreement reached before the Las Vegas Grand Prix, for the Andretti application to morph into one in the name of Cadillac, who claim they will build their own F1 power unit by the end of the decade.

More teams on the F1 grid means more opportunity for young drivers, who in recent years have found it tough to make it into the pinnacle of motorsport. The FIA has its own series of feeder racing programmes designed as a pathway to ultimately reach Formula One but unlike at the inception of the GP2 and GP3 series back in 2005, less and less champions are making it all the way to a full tie F1 drive.

 

 

 

F1 Super license introduced to prevent pay drivers

The inaugural GP2 series was won by Nico Rosberg in 2005 and followed up by Lewis Hamilton the following season, both drivers gaining an immediate F1 seat following their title wins and as history records both went on to become F1 champions. Of the next five seasons, four of the GP2 winners were to feature in Formula One including Timo Glock, Nico Hulkenberg, pastor Maldonado and Romain Grosjean.

GP2 was replaced in 2017 by the FIA approved F2 racing series and in its first seven seasons the number of winners making it through to F1 proved to be the same as in the early days of GP2. Five of there first seven winners made it into Formula One and they are now joined by the ex-McLaren academy driver, Gabriel Bortoleto.

Drivers wishing to compete in Formula One must achieve the required `standards to be issued with an FIA approved ‘super license’ which was brought into being in the 1990’s as an attempt to prevent those unworthy of racing in F1 buying their way onto the grid.

Points are awarded throughout a driver’s junior racing career with 40 required to reach the criteria to drive in F1. The qualifying period is three years prior to the application and a range of opportunities are available to register points towards towards the super license. 

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Over ten drivers currently qualify for F1 license

Driving in an FP1 session counts as a point, although the drivers must have earned a ‘free practice only’ super license which was introduced in 2019. This helps the F1 teams to evaluate drivers and drivers to get their required 300km testing. Drivers can gain this licence by accumulating just 25 points over the previous three years, or need to have taken part in at least six F2 races.

The number of drivers competing in the FIA feeder series capable of attaining an F1 super license is more numerous than most people think. With 40 points being awarded for any of the top three slots in an F2 championship, there a currently nine drivers who from a single season in F2 who would meet the FIA’s requirements.

Yet when it comes to racing series outside theremin of the FIA, things are very different. Indycar is North America’s premier single seat racing series where at the annual blue ribbon event in Indianapolis, the cars average speeds across the two and a half mile oval in excess of an F1 car’s top speed at most of the venues on the calendar.

However, the competitors in the Indycar series are not afforded the same level of points as those in F2, despite the cars being way quicker and the experience of the drivers is far in excess of F2.

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Indycar series marked down

Each of next seasons five rookies have easily qualified for the FIA suer license, yet there are multiple race winners in North American single seater racing, who do not make the points grade set by the FIA.

The winner of an Indycar series collects 40 points as in F2, but there are 25% less points on offer for the driver in P2 (30) and 50% less for the one placed third (20). This despite the fact there are nearly one and a half as many Indycar drivers each year competing in a series which has gone down to the last race of the year in eighteen of the last twenty seasons.

With Cadillac now approved as the eleventh team for 2026, all eyes turn towards who they may recur as their driver lineup. When the bid was led by Andretti, Michael who fronted the team had insisted the team would field at least on all American driver.

Of the ten America citizens who will compete in all rounds of the 2025 Indycar championship, just a couple are likely candidates for Formula One. In particular one name stands out from the crowd and its Californian born Colton Herta.

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Button says Herta “very quick”

Whilst the winner of the last two Indy500 races, Joseph Newgarden has the required skill set, his age is against him as is the case for Alexander Rossi who won the 100th running of the blue ribbon event.

Herta’s team mate at Andretti, Kyle Kirkwood is also showing promise, although for now he must prove himself to the the best of the Andretti stable of three set to compete in 2025. Herta has won nine races and scored 18 podiums in IndyCar. He finished runner-up behind Alex Palou in 2024, his sixth full season in the sport.

And yet he does not qualify for an F1 super license. He would need to finish at least fourth in this seasons Indycar championship to reach the required benchmark to be accepted into Formula One. There are other ways in which points can be accumulated and the latest report from the States is that Cadillac are considering paying one of this year’s F1 entrants to field Herta in a number of FP1 sessions as insurance.

2009 F1 champion Jenson Button raced alongside Herta last season, in the NASCAR season opener in Daytona. “He’s extremely quick. Everything he gets in he’s quick. IndyCar, he’s extremely quick. He was my teammate when we raced at Daytona earlier this year, and he just gets in and he’s on it,” revealed Button at the penultimate race weekend in Qatar.

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“I think he’ll be quick from the word go. There’s obviously a lot of learning – very different to IndyCar – but I think he’s got the mindset.”

Whether Cadillac continue the vision laid out by Andretti for an American driver has yet been confirmed, but the scale of the task of building an F1 team from scratch is difficult enough and with just rookie F1 drivers, the effort required almost doubles.

Sergio Perez and Valtteri Bottas may be in the GM cross hairs, both multiple F1 race winners and they know how a team is put together. Yet for now the FIA super license system bias against those competing outside the FIA approved feeder series continues to be a cause for frustration amongst drivers and fans alike.

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Marko calls out Mercedes’ “big risk”

There’s no love lost between the senior management at Mercedes AMG F1 and Red Bull Racing following the epic struggle of 2021, which saw Max Verstappen halt Lewis Hamilton’s march to an unprecedented eighth Formula One drivers’ championship.

Since the dramatic last lap, last race of the year decider, it has been Red Bull who have taken the Mercedes’ mantle of dominance  with Max Verstappen leading the charge. Red Bull without their talisman could easily have been only fourth in the constructors’ title race for 2024, behind their arch rivals and the troubled Lewis Hamilton.

Now with Hamilton having left for Ferrari, Mercedes are themselves attempting to do a ‘Red Bull,’ by promoting their highly regarded academy driver alongside George Russell for the upcoming campaign of 2025… READ MORE