A New 12 months tweet from FIA president Mohammed ben Sulayem seems to open the way in which for Andretti… and others.
The tweet late this afternoon from Ben Sulayem’s private account was brief and easy.
“I’ve requested my FIA workforce to take a look at launching an Expressions of Curiosity course of for potential new groups for the FIA F1 World Championship,” it learn.
Since Manor dropped out of F1 in 2016 there have been simply ten groups, the British outfit, which began life as Virgin then Marussia, having joined only a few years earlier together with Lotus and HRT, all three interested in the game by the promise of a funds cap and aggressive engine bundle that was to not be.
Since then, definitely since Liberty Media took management of the game in 2017, there was an unofficial franchise system in operation, and in a bid to make sure that the prevailing groups preserve a price and to forestall ‘wannabee’ entries from the Andrea Modas of this world, potential new entries must pay out $200m on entry because of the “dilution” of the prize cash pool.
Nonetheless, even accepting the $200m demand hasn’t been sufficient for Michael Andretti’s dream of coming into F1, with the FIA, and a lot of main groups, together with Mercedes, clearly in opposition to the concept.
Then again, Audi, which is shopping for a serious slice of Sauber, has been welcomed with open arms, whereas it’s nonetheless hoped that Porsche will discover the means to line up on the grid.
The large query is why this obvious change of coronary heart from the FIA?
Does F1 see a profit from having 11 or 12 groups or is the game merely taking part in protected conscious that the so-called growth may not final eternally. Certainly, through the years we’ve seen the producer deal with the game as if it had a revolving door, the continuing antics of Honda being an ideal instance.
No matter, Andretti will certainly see this as a belated Christmas current.
