Mario Andretti says his son Michael would be “ready to go the next day,” should his application to the FIA to create a new Formula 1 team be approved. The goal is to have the team on-track by 2024.
In an exclusive interview with IndyStar, the elder Andretti divulged that F1’s possible 11th two-car team, to be named Andretti Global, would have its home base in England with the cars made at a yet-to-be-built “state-of-the-art” facility in Indianapolis near the team’s IndyCar and Indy Lights headquarters.
When reached for comment, Andretti Autosport confirmed Michael’s application to the FIA but said it could offer no further comment.
Mario said the team has already secured an engine partner, though he wouldn’t confirm the automaker. At the moment, Mercedes supplies power units for itself, Williams, McLaren and Aston Martin, while Red Bull makes engines for itself and sister team AlphaTauri, and Ferrari for itself, Alfa Romeo and Haas. Renault, which runs in F1 under its sports car brand "Alpine" most recently served as an engine supplier for McLaren in 2020 and currently makes its own engines.
Honda, Andretti's engine partner in IndyCar, exited the F1 engine-making business this offseason, with Red Bull allowed to use the technology and build engines for itself and AlphaTauri through the end of the 2024 campaign.
Additionally, Mario told IndyStar that Dan Towriss, the president and CEO of Group 1001 (an Indiana-based insurance holdings company), is partnering with Michael Andretti in the team. He clarified, adding that Gainbridge, whose parent company is Group 1001 and serves as primary sponsor for Andretti IndyCar driver Colton Herta, is not partnering on the deal.
“Michael has been working on this for quite a long time, but he’s taken a different direction since there’s no teams available to buy,” Mario told IndyStar. “They’re far enough along that, if they get the approval to be added to the 10 teams that exist in F1, they’re ready to go the next day and put everything in place. This didn’t just happen.
“They’ve been working hard to secure personnel. Some individuals are standing by that have been part of start-ups (in the past), and the (Indianapolis) building would be separate (from the IndyCar headquarters), but everything would ultimately all be under one big roof – together, but separate.”
Mario: 'They checked all those boxes'
Under F1’s most recent Concorde Agreement signed by the 10 current teams midway through 2020, a new team would have to pay a $200 million fee, though there has been speculation recently that that it could be waived.
When asked whether Andretti Global would be forced to pay that fee if granted approval from the FIA, Mario told IndyStar, “They’re all set. They checked all those boxes, all of those things that are part of it. They’re going in with their eyes wide-open with all the prerequisites.
“I don’t know how confident you can feel, but you just hope that the best intentions are forward. From Michael’s standpoint, there’s a huge commitment. It’s serious and absolutely in good faith, but all that is in the hands of the FIA and the Formula 1 teams to accept it. This isn’t just on a whim or a bucket list thing. This is for real. Michael, once he sets his sights on something, he’s relentless. He’s aligned himself with the right people to support it, and he’s doing it right."
A series source told IndyStar earlier this week that F1 teams and the FIA were currently in discussions about adding one or two new teams in the near-future, but added, "I can also imagine, if you're one of the existing teams, you're not very excited about adding and diluting the pot. Some option may be advantageous to some people and not to others, so does anything ever really happen, because it's a stalemate where, 'Hey, the current situation is pretty good for the 10 of us that are involved right now, so we probably want to leave it alone.'"
Last fall, Michael Andretti was far down the road in negotiations with Longbow Finance, the parent company of Sauber, which then owned the Alfa Romeo F1 team. But as Andretti revealed in November, talks fell apart in the 11th hour over what he called “control issues.” Essentially, he said, Longbow wasn’t willing to cede majority control of the F1 operation.
“It became a deal we had to step away from,” Michael Andretti told reporters in November. “In the end, it wasn’t right for us.
“I’d like to put an end to some of these rumors that the deal fell through because of financial reasons. That couldn’t be further from the truth. It had nothing to do with that. I’ve always said that, if the deal’s not right, we’re not going to do it, and the deal wasn’t right, so we’ll continue to look for other opportunities.”
'I want Colton there so badly'
Also in November, Andretti confirmed what many had begun to believe: Should he ever acquire an F1 team, his 21-year-old IndyCar star Colton Herta would likely be plucked from American open-wheel racing and put on the world stage.
“He’d be the perfect guy to do it,” Michael said in November. “We definitely were going to try and get him in that (open Alfa Romeo seat that went to Guanyu Zhou, the 3rd-place F2 finisher in 2021). I believe he could be competitive driver in Europe.”
As it currently stands though, Herta is not eligible to apply for the FIA super license that F1 requires. Because the 2018 Indy Lights field didn’t include enough full-time drivers, the 12 points Herta received as runner-up can’t be used. With the onset of the pandemic, the FIA allowed a driver’s best three seasons over a four-year span count towards their point accumulation.
As he begins the 2022 IndyCar season, Herta's application would now include the three best of his four years in IndyCar, which include 5th in 2021 (8 points), 3rd in 2020 (20 points) and 7th in 2019 (4 points). To reach at least 40 points by the end of 2022, Herta would need to finish 3rd in the championship, receiving 20 more points to go with those from 2020 and 2021. A 4th-place finish would only give him 10 more, leaving him just shy at 38, though he can also obtain a single point for each F1 practice session he drives at least 100 km in.
“100%, I want (Colton) there (In F1) so badly,” Mario told IndyStar Friday. “He deserves to be there. To me, he’s such an exceptional talent, and he needs to be able to show that in F1. And not only do I think he’s really talented, but he really wants it himself and to be assured he’s treated fairly, and you know he would get that with this team.
“And maybe if he doesn’t get the results he’s looking for, maybe he can get an offer somewhere else, but at least he would get a fair shake with Michael. You’ve got two races, and potentially three, in the U.S., and I don’t think it would hurt F1 to have another American team (alongside Haas). And it would definitely have at least one American driver. That, you can count on. If not, I’ll cut Michael’s allowance off.”
Mario followed with a hearty chuckle.When asked about his own personal aspirations to jump to F1, should he acquire a super license, Herta told media last month at IndyCar content days that "I'd be lying if I said I didn't want to do Formula 1.
"And I want to do a lot of stuff in my career, but a lot of it also needs certain timing. F1 is one of those things where, if you're 28, you're not going to F1, unfortunately. That's just not how it works. The time is right for me if I got the opportunity. I'd have to have a good think about it, but I most likely would do it because I want to run in Formula 1 at some point."
Such a move in the near-future, Herta explained, wouldn't mean his IndyCar career would be over at age 22 or 23, though.
"I think people forget that I'm 21 years old and think I can't come back in five years and still run 15 years in IndyCar and be 40," he said. "Yeah, I definitely want to give (F1) a crack if I get the opportunity, but I'm definitely not disappointed at all in IndyCar. I like this series more than any series in the world, and I enjoy racing in it a lot. There's just a lot of stuff that I'd like to try in my racing career outside of IndyCar."
'The ball's in their court'
Now, the Andretti family is playing the waiting game. The FIA, Mario said, hasn’t given Michael a timeline of when to expect a decision.
“All I know is they say they’re working on it. That’s all they’re telling him it seems,” Mario said. “Everything they’ve asked for, he can do, so he’s ready to listen.The ball’s in their court at the moment.
“For me, I’m over the moon at this possibility. There’s no secret how much F1 and motor racing has meant to our family. We’d be active everywhere. You’ve got to be ambitious, and Michael hasn’t held back very much, as you can see. This is Michael’s business, period, and it’s going to be that way until the end of his professional life. We live and breath motorsports. That’s what we do.”
