What a serious escalation means for Andretti F1 dispute

Poster-like behavior that makes excuses and a model that may be completely broken Formula 1 has received a stinging attack for its continued opposition to Andrey The Cadillacs would be a new team The

dispute

over F1's rejection of the project planned by General Motors with Andrey Global has escalated amid mounting political pressure in the United States the proposed new F1 team has been in limbo for months since the commercial rights holder dismissed its application despite the FIA ​​giving the green light to andreti in October last year since he was blocked andreti has continued his preparations and has maintained a dialogue with the management of Formula 1 to try to get them to reconsider and has been considering his options should that fail, getting political support in The US appears to be crucial to that final point before the 1978 Miami Grand Prix.

World Champion Mario Andreti was invited to Capital Hill after A dozen American politicians signed a letter asking for more information about the team's rejection and expressing his concern that F1 was exhibiting cartel-like behavior by refusing to expand the grid. This was followed by the revelation of a letter sent after the race by another political president. From House Judiciary Committee Jim Jordan to Liberty Media Chairman and CEO Greg Maay and F1 Chairman and CEO Stefano Domenicali demanding answers, Judiciary committee is authorized to oversee and legislate on matters related to the protection of trade against illegal restrictions. and monopolies we understand that f1's position on andreti and GM has been changed by the UN, which

means

that this action is likely to result in a confrontation because it is rooted in the reasons for rejecting andreti, which Fon supports and Andreti and his supporters clearly do not agree with Congressman Jordan says they are just excuses that appear to be arbitrary pretextual and unrelated to Andreti Cadillac's suitability to compete in Formula 1, so

what

is happening, how does it affect the confrontation and

what

will happen next?

One of the reasons why the reason for the rejection was so controversial is that F1 took it on. set out to evaluate the likely competitiveness of the project as he felt that, as it was intrinsically linked to its potential value, he determined that an eleventh team alone would not provide value and cited several reasons for concern about Andre's project, specifically Andreti had a provisional agreement with Reno prepared so that the French manufacturer no longer seems interested and F1 fears that having to force another manufacturer to supply an engine would be detrimental to the prestige and reputation of the championship.

The rules state that an existing engine manufacturer will be chosen to supply any team that cannot reach an agreement. on its own, so the implication is that Andreti would be hamstrung by such a deal and potentially more compromised than a normal customer, while Andreti's name carries some recognition for F1 fans. F1 decided it would add value to the Andreti brand rather than the other way around. The addition of an 11th team would place an operational burden on race promoters. F1 said it would subject some of them to significant costs to expand facilities to accommodate the additional team and reduce garage, paddock and hospitality spaces for other competitors.

F1 also stated that it could not. To identify any expected positive material effect on Liberty Media's financial results as a key indicator of the pure commercial value of the championship, the growing American political pressure marks the end of an unusually quiet period in these

dispute

s that has oscillated between sometimes antagonistic tactics of Andrey and F1's frustrating and uncooperative silence Jordan believes the Judiciary Committee has the

means

to investigate F1, which is owned by American company Liberty Media, because sports leagues operate in a notable area of ​​antitrust law. It claims that F1 may be engaging in collusion that amounts to anti-competitive practices. conduct in rejecting Andreti and that even delaying entry by a year will hurt American consumers to benefit failing Formula 1 teams, although it is unclear why Jordan believes American consumers will lose out;

It is presumably based on the perceived interest there would be in seeing Andreti Cadillac compete in terms of failed team sites, which probably refers to the fact that many teams do not regularly compete for wins and podiums that F1 used as a benchmark. to judge whether andreti Cadillac would be competitive. The exact wording of F1 was that the best brand of competitiveness would be in particular competing for podiums and race wins, as this would materially increase fan engagement and increase the value of the championship in the eyes of key stakeholders and sources of income. Jordan's letter is based on various media reports and statements and includes us among its cited sources. which we have to say as the first to appear alongside a US Congressional letterhead and adequately reflects the way F1 is handling this.

He writes that limiting the number of teams will increase the price of sponsoring or purchasing an existing team and that if F1 must hinder competition and harm consumers to protect failed competitors then the entire Formula 1 model may break down if that is the case, he claims, then F1 cannot hide behind the need for a sports league to pursue anti-competitive conduct. The result is that Jordan requested detailed information about the decision to deny Andrey Cadillac's request, this includes demanding documents and communications about the process that F1 carried out, anything that refers to or is related to andreti Global, as well as between the Liberty Media Formula 1 group and the 10 existing teams regarding the entry of a new F1 team.

He has not yet commented publicly on the matter, but Andreti Global, who has been fairly quiet lately and letting others do the talking, said he is glad the decision was made to investigate Liberty's practices and since there has been communication between the parties and A meeting was recently held in the weeks leading up to Miami. This could have happened months ago when F1 wrote to Andreti in December extending an invitation to an in-person meeting at his offices for Andreti to present his application, but Andreti did not accept F1. In this bid, which he claimed was the result of the email ending up in a spam folder despite in-person discussions eventually taking place, little real progress has been made.

It is understood that Andre has confirmed his entry as all about 2026, having initially made a lot of noise. around 2025, which was one of F1's reasons for rejecting it and JC is racing in 2026 and 27 as a necessary glide path before adopting the GM Works engine in 2028, but as nothing has fundamentally changed in the position of the F1, the impasse continues and that may well be what encouraged political interference in the US. Meanwhile, Andreti has adopted a favorable message that he is pushing ahead with his plans at a good pace, which include the inauguration of a base in the United Kingdom.

Andre Global has unveiled for the first time a 48,000-person building in Silverstone with the potential to expand it further. One suggestion is that This could be something of a red herring given that it is not a stand-alone F1 facility and will also incorporate the Banbury-based Andreti Formula E team. Andreti describes it as a collaboration site for our global family of racing teams. How is compared? to other local F1 teams in that area such as Mercedes and the smaller H f1 team it is arguable with some suggestions it is inferior to those but it is unfinished as Andreti says it will be completed in phases according to commercial needs and sports and workforce requirements and is Not intended to be a large scale venue, this site in the UK is just a European satellite and Andre's main site is in Indiana, given Andre's commitment to being an All-American team.

There are also plans to use Cadillac and GM facilities in the US, such as the GM Technology Center. in North Carolina, these different locations have shared the F1 project workload until now. F1 did not completely close the door on Andreti with his rejection earlier this year. There was a carrot dangling for 2028, that's when the project would have the GM Works engine and the F1 ones. The official position is that it would look different on that type of program, the suggestion is that F1 would probably accept that entry, but that's very easy to say now at one point, Kick the Can down the road, shut down Andreti and then never meets it, especially since In his initial rejection of Andreti F1 he argued that a rookie constructor in partnership with a new engine supplier would have a significant challenge to overcome and noted that most attempts to establish a new constructor in recent decades have not had success.

It's also important to note that the FIA's original selection process was for 2025 26 or 27, meaning the FIA ​​would probably have to reopen the entire process and give them to other teams that were originally rejected outright as high-tech. another opportunity to enter another factor. What could become relevant is speculation of a proposal to enshrine a Grid of a maximum of 10 teams in the Concord deal, which would turn the perception that F1 is a closed shop and cartel into reality at the moment. F1 can legitimately, if tenuously, claim that it is not inherently opposed. expand the grid because all the relevant regulations and commercial framework allow up to 13 teams to compete, eradicating it would be a terrible look and counterproductive if a team behind a desirable manufacturer was ready and willing to enter F1, the championship would be forced to reject it and is not currently believed to be a

serious

prospect, so the main question is whether F1 is

serious

about its 2028 proposal for a GM works team and whether Andre is willing to abandon his 2026 ambition, call Bluff from F1 and find out that there is actually no clock for this process as a whole, although individual elements have a mix of specific and non-specific deadlines, for example F1 has been given until May 21 to respond to Jordan's letter, so there is short-term limbo while he waits for a decision. response and then the possibility of further

escalation

if you don't understand it or it's not satisfactory.

A broader picture. The FIA ​​has accepted the entry of Andreti Cadillac and if the team's work continues in PACE then it will presumably continue its work in the wind tunnel under current regulations. car and waiting to start developing a car for the 2026 rules, that seems like a long way to go, but it will probably mean an undetermined deadline this year to draw a line under this either way to prevent this sorry situation from descending to a really fast F1. Dealing with a scenario where a team is entitled to an FIA entry but there is no commercial deal with F1 or a Paddock place or some other meaningless setup, we can envisage three realistic options at this stage, one of which will be the pressure that is exerted on F1. will bear fruit, will change its position and andreti Cadillac will get a 2026 entry two that doesn't happen and andreti launches a full legal challenge or three andreti accepts that 2026 won't happen, calls f1's Bluff and fully commits to the idea of ​​entering in 2028 like the unequivocal GM Works team and we will find out if F1 really intends to repeat all this again.