30 December 2023 , 16:25
788
0
Martin Brundle is excited at the prospect of an 11th Formula 1 team - but warned Michael Andretti to expect a tough time if he does get his outfit on the grid.
Andretti Global is working with General Motors on a bid to join the existing 10 teams. And their proposal already has FIA approval, after the governing body ran a process over several months to figure out whether any prospective new entrants met the criteria.
But commercial rights holders Liberty Media have the final say and are more hesitant about the idea of an 11th team. And the existing outfits are, in general, against the idea of diluting their profits and commercial opportunities further.
If given approval, it remains to be seen how competitive the new outfit will be. Andretti have plenty of experience in high-level single-seater racing, having enjoyed success in IndyCar and Formula E.
But more than a decade has passed since a driver won an IndyCar title driving for Andretti. And Sky Sports F1 pundit Brundle pointed to that fact as he warned that being competitive in F1 will be a difficult task if he is given final approval to join the grid.
Sebastian Vettel warns of looming F1 ban and is "very worried about the future"
"With my TV cap on and my F1 fan cap on, I’d like to see another team and two more cars and drivers on the grid," he said. "Andretti is a great name, but on the other side of the coin they've never really built their own car, they haven’t really dominated IndyCar in recent years or any of the other categories. So it's not given that just because it's called Andretti, it'll be competitive.
"I can understand why Formula 1 and the other teams are going, 'Hang on a minute. F1 is in a very good place now, you can't just join this club when we've gone through the years and the decades of losing money and putting lots of capital expenditure and huge amounts of budget into all this'.
"So I get it all. I think you have to look at it and say it's Team A from America: can they put together a credible competition on the grid? And what do they bring to F1? I think you have to lose the emotion of the Andretti name and take a rational decision, but I would like to see more cars on the grid."
General Motors have signalled their intention to build their own F1 engines in the future. But the Andretti entry would need power units in the short term, and Alpine have confirmed they would be happy to resume talks despite the expiration of a previous pre-contract agreement.
Interim team principal Bruno Famin said: "If they have an entry, we are happy to discuss [a deal] with Andretti. What I said last time is that we had a pre-contract, the pre-contract has expired, then factually right now we don't have any commitment or any legal commitment with them. But we're happy to talk to them and to see what we can do together."