Mario Andretti posted a tweet confirming that the Andretti team had formally applied to enter Formula 1 for 2024, a project run by his son Michael where the 1978 World Champion plays a clear advisory role.
The American explained that as soon as negotiations with Sauber for the purchase of Alfa Romeo failed at the end of last year, Michael Andretti went to work on his second option, building his own team from scratch. Obviously, the starting point is further away, but not insurmountable given the ambitions and the means that the Andretti team has.
“He doesn’t give up,” his son Mario Andretti said in an interview with Racer . “He immediately started working on plan B, which now becomes plan A: to create his own team.
“We have a long-term project, you can see that Michael has been a very ambitious owner, he competes in different disciplines all over the world: Formula E, Extreme E, Supercars in Australia, etc.
“He also loves linking up with the right partners. Formula 1 is his ultimate goal, without a doubt, plus he’s young enough to stay there for a long time.”
“He has some very interesting people who are set to join him as soon as his arrival in F1 is made official, to guide him and be involved in getting the team up and running. I can’t name those people at the moment, but I can tell. He did what he had to do.”
In announcing the news, Mario Andretti made two things very clear: it will be a completely new team and they hope to be on the grid in two years’ time. It is the last part that, today, inevitably generates more doubts given its complexity.
“We are there, talking to the key people [FIA]. Everything is happening and I think at the moment it is about the rest of the teams giving us their approval. I have also been in contact with Bernie Ecclestone and he gave me a lot of advice. He He’s the one who created some of those rules.”
“We are working on all aspects, we are not going blindly. We respect everything that they ask us, guarantees and such. So, if they need something more from us, we are prepared to respond.”
In 2020, an entry fee of close to €200 million was introduced after the signing of the new Concord Agreement, which aims to protect the value of existing teams.
In reference to whether they would be willing to pay the amount mentioned above, this was Mario Andretti ‘s response: “Yes, yes. As I said before, we are convinced and we know the necessary conditions, we know what we are getting into.”
“As he [Michael Andretti] said, once we were inside F1, we would field one team in Formula 2 and another in Formula 3. We have very long-term planning. How many Formula 1 teams do that? Not many.” , he concluded.
