A story has been circulating in the paddock for some time, confirmed (with the microphones off) even by more than one team principal. According to the story, two years ago Michael Andretti did not make the most of the opportunity to present his plan to enter the world championship as the eleventh team to the Formula 1 Commission. His debut was considered arrogant, ending up greatly annoying everyone present. “He explained motorsport to us,” commented a person who attended the meeting privately.
It all happened about a year after Andretti’s first attempt to enter Formula 1. In 2021 I began negotiations to take over Sauber, and the negotiations seemed set to end positively, complete with a press release ready to announce the change of ownership between Finn Rausing (who held the majority share of the team at the time) and the Andretti group. Colton Herta’s presence in the FP1 session of the United States Grand Prix was even planned, but at the last minute everything fell through. The versions were conflicting, Andretti claimed that the conditions changed at the last minute, from the Rausing front it emerged that Andretti had failed to comply with a fixed point that had been immediately made clear, namely that the team should have remained in Hinwil.
When last January 31st Liberty Media definitively rejected the Andretti team’s candidacy to enter Formula 1 as the eleventh team, the reasons for the ‘no’ remained unclear. Since the US group acquired the commercial rights from Bernie Ecclestone in September 2016, the first objective was immediately very clear: to break into the US market. From this perspective, the entry into Formula 1 of Andretti, one of the most popular brands in the USA, seemed like the perfect operation for Liberty Media’s aims. Together with Penske and Ganassi the Andretti name is undoubtedly a great added value for the promotion in the United States, yet the operation has stalled. The reasons? It has never been really clear, but according to many insiders the story of the division of income into eleven parts, instead of the current ten, does not stand up.
Nine months after Liberty Media’s ‘no’ vote, Michael Andretti announced that he had sold the majority stake in Andretti Global to partner Dan Towriss. A step backwards that took everyone by surprise, including the US team itself. Andretti, through a letter published on the team’s website, explained the reasons behind his choice. “I made this decision thinking about myself, the team and my family – he declared – I will still have a role as team consultant, and even if I will be less present on the track, my passion for this sport will remain the same as always. I’m happy to be able to spend more time with my beautiful family, with my ten-year-old twins, and to be able to dedicate myself more to my new role as a grandfather.”
At sixty-two years old, Michael Andretti steps aside, but it is striking that this decision comes a few months after the presentation of the Formula 1 program in which he was totally involved. The impression is that Andretti was shown the door by his own partners precisely because of the ‘no’ received from Liberty Media, a stop that came after huge investments had already been allocated. Andretti may have paid for the less than idyllic relationships with the CEO of the US group Greg Maffei and the President of Formula One Group, Stefano Domenicali. The next few months will clarify everything, if the Andretti team’s candidacy regains momentum, the origin of the disagreements that blocked the operation last winter will become clear.
#Andrettis #step #due #Libertys #team