To state your position as a professional. Clearly noted in the official statement was the lack of appearance after being invited!! Sorry but this mess is on the FIA and it’s buffoon of a leader when, in fact Liberty were not asking for new teams. If you do not show up to a professional invitation then how serious are you. The loser is Andretti. He had much to gain and was offered a chance to speak and didn’t but did lobby teams directly, attended races but could not show up?? He ignored the final decision makers invite That needs explaining here lol???
It's about money, I agree. I think F1 will change to the NFL model of 'parity'....quite quickly. They already have with budget caps...how many years ago was it that Ferrari was rumored to have spent $800,000,000/year for 2 cars? 'Money' means more participants will win more often, close finishes will be even more frequent(Michael Masi was ahead of his time). Huge viewership numbers means lotsa casual fans only care about the adrenalin rush of a close finish; they do it now at home with video games, right? (That's an honest question as I don't play video games). I'm genuinely puzzled how legacy race teams can participate in today's high level racing....BOP every race, Push to Pass, opaque points awards which favor consistency over excellence. It can only mean they are making money. Road America's tag line....'Come for the fun, stay for the race'.
F1 is now officially a ticking time bomb. Entirely of their own making by enslaving themselves to manufacturers. F1 has been putting manufacturers on a pedestal, kissing their ass constantly. Bowing down to their will, whichever it is F1 will do their best to accommodate it. I've been saying it for years, F1 doesn't need manufacturers. It will not bring new, long term fans. At best a tiny fraction of the car owners will watch some races. F1 needs to call manufacturers bluff whenever they stamp their feet and threaten to leave. Tell them where the door is. As Andretti has proven, they've got the cash to pick up the scraps. 2009 showed manufacturers will drop F1 at the drop of a hat. Make the rules that make the sport ENTERTAINING. That will bring long term, enthusiastic fans. With the budget caps in place, manufacturers that own teams will simply own a money making asset. The rolling bill boards they'll have bring in more money than the budget cap to cover the cost...and have free advertising for their own brand whilst at it! Or they can keep pandering to the will of manufacturers, F1's fans will give up, F1 will not have any more viewers, therefore sponsors will go, and manufacturers will hold an expensive bag and factories they can do nothing with. May just be the better thing. GFY Moustache boy.
Andretti now turning up to defend his case at the FOM invitation was like not going to a second interview after applying for a job. He eliminated himself.
Does that include Ferrari too ? or McLaren ? Aston Martin perhaps ? Where do you draw the line ? What is incredible is that teams need 600 to 800 staff just to run 2 cars !! That is totally barmy. F1 is now very complex and needs huge resources to exist; only big manufacturers have them.
The outcome was known before it began. When the teams were against it due to the pressures on income - that is THE answer. The FIA is totally beholden to FOM... and Liberty. they are not going to dilute the pool of money. If Andretti were serious they would have posted a $1B entry fee with some stipulations to enhance the pool of money... I dont know who was advising them... but not very good strategy. Andretti wanted to cash in on the F1 craze... that is the reality of the situation. they are just as Greedy as the rest of F1 owners. Sorry to be so blunt, but that is reality.
The teams said it was about money from the very beginning. Anyone seriously following F1 for any length of time knows that Money is more important than winning. Its what F1 is really about... and has always been.
That would be a return to club racing where only the wealthy enthusiasts could afford to race. I would have nothing against it. A cheaper and les technical formula would probably come out of it. When the FIA (or FISA as it was called then) allowed advertising on cars in the 60s, they opened a pandora box and invited the big corporation to set the tone. Sponsorship existed before, but it was more discreet.
I saw someone mention it on YouTube. It might have been mention in the Lewis to Ferrari thread, I haven't read it yet. But do you think the Lewis to Ferrari announcement timing in some part was to squash the mountain of negative comments that F1 was receiving from the Andretti announcement. The fact it happened so far in advance and right after Andretti seemed peculiar to say the least.
The value added proposition starts with having 2 more seats available. Go back in time and look at Minardi, and even Jordan, these teams were where up and coming drivers got a start. Look at the 2024 season and recognize that there are a series of drivers that are worthy of the opportunity but with no place to be. This is why I want to see the grid expanded to the maximum allowed under the current Concorde. As far as I am concerned the FOM created a BS ridden excuse document. It is clear that they neve3r wanted anyone new under any reasonable circumstances. They managed to skip right past the parts of the Concorde, that every current team agreed to, that stipulate that there can be 2 more teams and that the Dilution Fee is $200 mil. The very nature of there being the ability to have 2 more teams has to mean that the agreements with every track must include their ability to accommodate them. It will be interesting to see if Andretti decides to go the legal route. IF he does I would envision the discovery process to get very messy for the FOM. Public disclosures of documents and communications that they really don't want others to see. Each team's Concorde and each track agreements would be an embarrassing start.
long time F1 journalist Joe Saward debates another euro F1 fan who takes Andretti's side. This debate goes for 40 minutes. Both go at it, pretty good. Debate starts at 16:21 into video. https://www.youtube.com/live/MBBmSrnghKU?si=uFGEeJeOU9cbDpQ-&t=981
And Joe Saward ends up backing up Liberty's decision with pretty strong arguments, I found. The Andretti issue is, I think, a conflict between emotion and logic. People don't like logic too much, it seems.
Andretti's 1/6 scale model in the wind tunnel for 2025. (January 29th 2024) Image Unavailable, Please Login Image Unavailable, Please Login Image Unavailable, Please Login
Nice to see Andretti getting some surprising support in the Anglocentric http://forums.autosport.com/topic/225424-andretti-refusal/ Of course this is from the Nostalgia Forum. Opinions in the racing forums may differ.
If you were CEO would you gladly accept to forfeit 10% of your company income to make room for a new competitor ?
I believe that both Ford and VW are bigger than GM and have been since the mid-2010's; VW is second largest world auto manufacturer trailing only Toyota
