Outside Line: FIA vs. F1 teams civil war looms over 11th entry
F1 NewsMonday, 09 October 2023 at 14:48
During and in the wake of the 2023 Qatar Grand Prix weekend, the matter of an 11th Formula 1 team - aka Andretti Formula Racing - grabbed headlines and could ignite an ugly civil war between the FIA versus Formula One Management (Liberty Media) and the current ten teams.
The FIA, F1's ruling body, after a lengthy and thorough process, granted Michael Andretti and his mega project a place in the paddock, the 11th team. And FIA president Mohammed Ben Sulayem expects it to happen.
In a potent show of his authority as the landlord of F1, which the FIA is, his team went through the due diligence, scrapped the other contenders and opted to go with Andretti as the 11 and for now wait on the 12th team, which they can propose anytime.
But getting the Cadillac-backed Andretti venture in, despite Ben Sulayem's support and clear stance on the matter, will not be a pushover as F1 CEO Stefano Domenicali will have his say. And it appears 'his say' (for now) is that of the F1 teams, and thus a big "NO" for Andretti.
Mercedes F1 boss Toto Wolff has emerged as the mouthpiece of the gang of ten, Red Bull's Christian Horner, in a rare show of solidarity with his rival, backed him too. Then Lawrence Stroll came out with the Aston Martin stance which is: If it ain't broken, don't fix it. The team bosses ramped up the rhetoric to keep the club to ten, throughout the weekend in Qatar.
Vowles: Williams is against the addition of an 11th team and very strongly against
Newish Williams team boss James Vowles, a Wolff disciple was doubly adamant: "Williams is against the addition of an 11th team. And very strongly against." Because with an extra F1 team, they would no longer be the tenth best but rather the 11th?
Team boss Fred Vasseur gave the Ferrari take: "It's not a secret that I'm not a big fan. Except if the new entry is bringing a massive added value to F1, and I didn't have access to the dossier of Andretti, but I think it's the first question - what is the added value for F1?
"We have already a 10th team who is American with Haas, we have an American driver on the grid - the question for me is around this - what could be the added value?" questioned Vasseur, whose Ferrari team is the most valuable ($3.3-billion) in the sport.
When asked to reason his argument against another F1 team, Vowles was admirably candid: "We are lossy. We are incredibly lossy. Our accounts have been submitted, you can see them we lost 20-million last year. You won't see it for another year but for 2023 you are going to see that number goes up by multiples.
"And here's why: we are investing in the sport because we believe in the sport. I think for the first time in a long, long time the sport has come closer together. We have teams fighting each other. Williams is part of, I'm not going to call it the midfield - we are not that good yet - but we are fighting for something. We want to continue that journey.
"But bear in mind that about half the grid are still lossy. That means someone somewhere - an investor, owners, whatever it may be - are putting in tens of millions, or in fact in our case it's going to go up to multiples above that. What we said at the outset is absolutely add an 11th team, but let's grow the pot so it makes financial sense. Not shrink the pot, which is what this is going to do quite significantly," explained Vowles.
Vasseur: Three or four years ago almost half the F1 grid close to bankruptcy
A couple of decades ago F1 had three new teams - Marussia, Caterham/Lotus and HRT) all voted into the sport by most of the existing powerbrokers. They all sadly went by the wayside living the mish mash of massive top five or six teams in F1, with three or four teams teetering on going bust, cars devoid of upgrades and drivers there just to make up the numbers.
Vasseur argues that times are different: "When we opened the door to an 11th team in the Concorde Agreement last time, it was for good reason. At that stage, Honda said already that they would leave F1 and were on the edge, it meant that we had only Mercedes and Ferrari confirmed for the future.
"And we opened the door to an 11th team in case they could bring something substantial to F1, and I think this at that stage was mainly the engine. All the teams on the grid made a big effort. We have to keep in mind that three or four years ago we had almost half of the grid quite close to bankruptcy, and we have to avoid being arrogant.
"F1 and life is a cycle, we don't know what could happen before 2030, and I think that we would put F1 in a tough situation for this," warned Vasseur.
A lot of smoke and mirrors to say oine thing: An 11th team will dilute the pie, and that pie is the money that goes around. Even the $200-million 'buy-in' fee now too little a number to pacify the paddock.
And that's the scenario, ten teams, defying Wolff's theory that F1 is a meritocracy, are steadfast against adding another one. In this case, Andretti.
Andretti will have FIA as their star witness and an army of lawyers waiting for F1 to say NO
Those legal eagles could then tackle the issue from an ethos perspective. Ask the question: Is F1 the pinnacle of the sport? Then how can ten self-appointed teams keep out others who deserve to have a crack too?
If it's meritocracy as they say, why not allow an American team to try their luck among the Europeans?
Possible answer: There's Haas flying the American flag...
Counter-answer: Not really they are a USA business with their Dallara car sourced in Italy and their Ferrari engine also from Italy and a Team Principal also from Italy. And two drivers not from America. And Gene's team is always so broke. That will snooker them.
Possible answer: There's Haas flying the American flag...
Counter-answer: Not really they are a USA business with their Dallara car sourced in Italy and their Ferrari engine also from Italy and a Team Principal also from Italy. And two drivers not from America. And Gene's team is always so broke. That will snooker them.
Frankly, only the current ten teams and Stefano see an 11th team being a problem. Fans want it, pundits want it and the industry wants it. An extra team means more jobs and crucially more seats for drivers at a time when so much talent goes by the wayside. The logic to it all can only be defined as blind greed.
Make no mistake, Ben Sulayem's team at FIA have left no box unchecked in the Andretti Formula Racing application. The due diligence is squeaky clean as is the long-term road map for the project presented by the team behind the bid.
Blocking an 11th F1 team from happening will be a war between the FIA and the dissenting cabal of team bosses. If I were their lawyer, the Andretti attack would be simple. Take F1 to court in the USA with the goal: If we can't race in your F1 series, then you can't race in the USA?
Fling in all the ammo they can from unfair monopoly, and unacceptable business practices, to disinformation: It's not a sport based on meritocracy, but rather one of privilege, to be at the right place at the right time. No way in for the deserving.
Throw in arguments with choice phrases such as "antitrust rules" as well as "agreements between market operators that would restrict competition" and of course the "abuse of dominance" which the Andretti Army and their supporters (aka the rest of the F1 world) could cite with valid reason.
And, for extra measure, they can bank on the FIA, F1's own governing body, to be their star witness. Slam Dunk? Watch this space...
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