Andretti plans start-up F1 team for 2024 season
Formula 1 has attracted a potential new entrant for 2024 with the revelation that Michael Andretti has set his sights on setting up a new team.
A tweet sent by 1978 world champion Mario Andretti late on Friday night lifted the lid on his son’s plans. “Michael has applied to the FIA to field a new F1 team starting in 2024,” it read. “His entry, Andretti Global, has the resources and checks every box. He is awaiting the FIA’S determination.”
Last year the younger Andretti, who heads up the Andretti Autosport operation that races in Indycar, Indy Lights, Formula E, Extreme E and Australian Supercars, was in talks to buy the Alfa Romeo team and the Sauber company behind it. But he was left frustrated at the eleventh hour when main shareholder
Finn Rausing opted not to sell.
With the new Concorde Agreement in place and the cost cap now introduced, all 10 existing F1 teams are in good financial health, so there are no longer any bargains to be had for potential buyers, with ‘franchise’ values rising. Andretti now appears to have decided instead to pursue his own project and start from scratch. Sources suggest that a headhunting organisation has already been talking to F1 personnel about an unnamed project that would start in 2024.
Despite his father’s claim of an application to the FIA, no formal entry process appears to be open at the moment, and it’s not clear what the procedure would be. One big challenge that any new team would face is a $200million entry fee incorporated in the current Concorde Agreement, and which is a “dilution fund” designed to protect the value of the 10 existing teams.
While there are significant hurdles for any possible new operation by Andretti, it comes at a time when American F1 interest is at a high level. A second
US race has been added to the calendar this year in Miami, while Las Vegas remains engaged in discussions over a potential grand prix in the coming years. F1 also announced last week that it had agreed a new five-year contract with the Circuit of The Americas in Austin, Texas, to continue hosting the United States GP. The track joined the calendar in 2012, and welcomed a record crowd of 400,000 over three days last year.
Several teams have attracted US investors in the past two years, notably Mclaren and Williams, while American tech giants have entered F1, such as Cognizant at Aston Martin and Oracle at Red Bull. One of Andretti’s own Indycar sponsors, Gainbridge, is also a backer of the Miami GP.