McLaren CEO Zak Brown slammed the short-sightedness of some Formula 1 teams in the aftermath of the Andretti-Cadillac plans to enter F1.
Zak Brown was one of the F1 figures that supported Andretti-Cadillac bid to enter the sport as an 11th team, a bid that came back to the spotlight after the FIA President Mohammed Ben Sulayem directed his team to launch the process of accepting bids from parties interested in joining F1 as new teams.
While Ben Sulayem is a big supporter of having Andretti-Cadillac on the grid, Formula 1 management and most of the teams were not excited about the news.
Money remains to be the elephant in the room, as F1 teams are not satisfied with the share they will get from the $200-Million dilution fee Andretti-Cadillac will pay before entering the sport as a franchise fee, with Michael Andretti accusing them of being greedy, which F1 CEO Stefano Domenicali slammed his statement as “not smart”.
Domenicali also recently claimed that new teams are welcome, he insisted the sport has to be prudent in the process of accepting new entries.
An 11th or 12th team welcome if they pay fair fee
On the other hand, Haas F1 Team Principal Guenther Steiner bluntly claimed having Andretti-Cadillac in F1 a risk with no benefit, something Zak Brown did not appreciate.
Speaking to Motorsport.com, Brown commented: “I’ve found some Formula 1 teams are very short-sighted in their view on not taking a longer-range view of what are things that can grow the sport, and they kind of think about the here and now.
“Unfortunately, I’m not surprised some of our competitors are quite short-sighted in their thinking,” he lamented, but remained supportive of a new team in F1 or even two, should they pay a fair franchise fee.
Brown explained: “Our general view is that so long as a team is additive to the sport, whether it’s an 11th team and/or a 12th team, and can help make the pie bigger, drive greater awareness and we all get more sponsors, we get more media deals, and they pay what’s a fair franchise fee, which all sports have, then I see no reason for them not to join.
“It’s ultimately up to the FIA and Formula 1 to determine whether they tick all those boxes of criteria. But assuming they do, then very welcome to race against them,” the American maintained.