Michael Andretti’s bid to join the Formula 1 grid has been on the backburners for a while now, after it was claimed by Formula 1 CEO Stefano Domenicali that he would not be looking to expand the current grid of ten teams in the near future.
Despite Domenicali’s claims, FIA president Mohammed Ben Sulayem has recently taken to Twitter, first to inform fans that he has instructed the FIA to look at the possibility of adding another team to the grid, and secondly to hit back at the negative responses to his initial statement.
Ben Sulayem believes that the sport should be excited about the prospect of such a big organisation such as General Motors looking to join the grid with Andretti Global, which judging by the reaction to their announcement, the fans are not.
There is clearly a rift forming in the relationship between the FIA and Formula 1, as both parties would have to agree, should another team be granted permission to join the grid in the future.
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Ben Sulayem is clearly set on exploring the possibility of allowing Andretti-Cadillac into the sport, despite Stefano Domenicali previously shutting down the idea when Andretti Global launched their first bid to join F1.
The BBC have now claimed that Andretti Motorsport might not have anticipated quite how big of an operation running a Formula 1 team can be, as it does not compare to the easier to run American motorsports.
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“Within F1, there is a general sense that many of those racing in America in categories where teams buy cars off the shelf and run them with fairly small-scale operations don’t quite grasp just how high the level is in F1, how complex the task,” reported the BBC.
The counter to this argument is the fact that Andretti Global have partnered with General Motors, who are clearly a big enough organisation to handle a Formula 1 team, arguably being bigger than some teams currently on the grid.
Haas’ continued presence in Formula 1 proves that an American owned team can thrive in the sport and with the number of Grand Prix’s taking place in the USA increasing to three this year, the influence of F1 in the United States is only going to continue increasing.