Michael Andretti on F1 Teams’ Backlash of American Bid: ‘It’s All About Greed’
Michael Andretti made headlines last week when Andretti Global and General Motors announced their plans to pursue a Formula One bid under the Cadillac brand. And while FIA president Mohammed Ben Sulayem seemed receptive to the idea, a majority of the F1 team owners were not.
One of the concerns that continues to be raised is the dilution of prize money. The Concord Agreement currently states the teams split their portion of the sport’s revenue. Thus, there is a $200 million “anti-dilution” fee, which essentially acts as an entry fee for new teams.
Andretti didn’t hold back in an interview with Forbes when discussing why he thinks some teams have been resistant to him joining.
“It’s all about money,” he said. “First, they think they are going to get diluted one-tenth of their prize money, but they also get very greedy thinking we will take all the American sponsors as well.
“It’s all about greed and looking at themselves and not looking at what is best for the overall growth of the series.”
Andretti, though, did comment how McLaren’s Zak Brown and Alpine have been supportive of his push. He hasn’t been shy about making his intentions known but had faced difficulty last season getting support for his plans. At the time, he didn’t have the backing of a manufacturer like GM—an American powerhouse.
Ben Sulayem tweeted just three days before Andretti and GM’s announcement that he “asked my FIA team to look at launching an Expressions of Interest process for prospective new teams” for F1. This is the first step to extending the grid beyond the current 10 teams. Andretti told Forbes that they decided to make the announcement after seeing the FIA president’s tweet of support.
“We check all the boxes. The only box we didn’t have checked when we were working on our entry was, we didn’t have an OEM behind us, but now we have GM and Cadillac behind us,” he said. “They are going to bring a lot to the party to help us get a race car on track. We are very bullish at this moment.”
However, in the days following the announcement, Ben Sulayem released another statement on Twitter, calling the “adverse reaction” surprising. It came at a moment when there had not been any public criticism from the teams or F1.
Formula One hasn’t had 11 teams on the grid since 2016 with Haas joined. However, it dropped back down to 10 constructors a year later when another team departed, and since then, it has remained the same number, though names have changed like Renault to Alpine starting in 2021.
