F1 rejection leaves Rodin Cars chief 'p***** off' thanks to 'crazy' FIA process

05 October 2023 , 05:00

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Rodin Cars founder and CEO David Dicker (Image: Rodin Cars)

"I'm still p****d off about it."

David Dicker needs little prompting to speak his mind. The straight-talking Aussie made that clear straight away as he spoke with about his failed attempt to join the Formula 1 circus.

His New Zealand-based company, Rodin Cars, was one of several parties which applied through the FIA's Expressions of Interest process earlier this year. Only four made it through to the second phase and, as of Monday, just the submission from Andretti Global remains in play.

The FIA has approved the American team's prospective entry, which was submitted in partnership with General Motors through its Cadillac brand. F1 chiefs will now weigh up the commercial merits of allowing Andretti to join the grid before an 11th team is given the green light.

Dicker is adamant that there was never any doubt that Andretti would get the thumbs-up from the FIA. He was similarly confident from day one that his own submission was never going to make it through the process.

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"We're not really supposed to talk about the details of the process," he told Mirror Sport. "But, if I summarised it, I would say that their expectation was that we basically already had an F1 team ready to go and that we would be right to move straight away. Obviously, we didn't have one of those so that was crazy."

Dicker announced last week that Rodin Cars' bid had failed, before the FIA had itself made that news public. His statement was a lengthy one and went into detail about several aspects of the carmaker's bid which he felt set it apart from the others in the process.

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Among them were the potential for a Ferrari engine deal, a commitment to fielding a female driver – Britain's Jamie Chadwick being the named example – and a commitment from Dicker to use his own personal wealth to fund the team. Estimates earlier this year placed his net worth at around £660m.

FIA president Mohammed ben Sulayem is on record as having pointed to Andretti's ability to bring General Motors into the fold as too enticing for the governing body to turn down. Regardless of that element of the Americans' bid, Dicker still feels Rodin's proposal was stronger.

He said: "What I don't understand about the whole thing is that the F1 guys are all on about, 'We'd only want another team if they can bring something to F1'. As I outlined in our press release, we bring things to F1 that no other F1 team has currently got.

Dicker feels his plan for an F1 team based in the southern hemisphere made for a "better bid" than the Andretti proposap approved by the FIA (Rodin Cars)

"We've got a full junior team, we'd put a woman in the car, we're from the southern hemisphere. Don't forget, Australia and New Zealand have five world championships and America has two. I'm still p***** off about it. I still feel like we had a better bid than Andretti. I'm not saying that just to say it – just look at the details.

"I didn't think there was any chance we would get across the line, I thought it was always going to be Andretti. I only put in for it because the opportunity was there and I had to do it. When opportunities like that come up, you've just got to take them, whether you think you can get in there or not.

"I didn't think there was any realistic chance we'd get across the line, regardless of the bid. I just didn't feel that way. I've been following Formula 1 since the '70s so, obviously, if the opportunity came up to get in there I'd want to do it."

Rodin's unsuccessful application through the Expressions of Interest process means the one avenue for prospective new F1 teams has been closed off to Dicker. If he is desperate to join the grid, the only way available for now would be for him to buy out one of the existing 10 teams.

It's a road he has considered walking down before. "I came close to buying Williams a few years ago when it was for sale, and I didn't handle that, strategically, as well as I would have liked, in hindsight," he admitted. "Now, I wish I'd done it, but I didn't."

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Regarding future opportunities, he added: "Yeah, sure – you never know what might come up. Don't forget, traditionally, F1 was always 26 cars and 13 teams. I still feel that they don't have a full-sized grid and, had they been a bit more adventurous, they would have put three teams in and taken it up to the full 26. That's my view."

Daniel Moxon