Last week, Global Andretti announced a partnership with General Motors’ Cadillac Race in a bid to join the Formula 1 grid. The announcement caught the attention of the motorsport world, including F1’s current teams. GM announced that it would support Andretti financially and technically and an agreement was made with a third-party electrical equipment supplier. Somehow, GM’s involvement made the opposition to Andretti from within the F1 race more fierce.
A senior figure at an F1 team says Reuters on Friday that a “strong majority” of teams were opposed to expanding the network of ten teams. The same number also says that Andretti-Cadillac is an exercise for GM, ignoring the fact that Aston Martin and Alfa Romeo do not produce power units for their F1 groups. While the FIA officially has ultimate control over teams’ participation in F1, the sport’s commercial rights holders, free media, any new entries must be approved. The FIA wants new teams to increase their main source of income from F1 competition entry fees. Even so, F1 itself feels differently about the new teams.
In 2021, Liberty Media and teams agreed that any 11th team would have to pay $200 million in expansion fees. The total amount will be split evenly among the teams to compensate for the dilution of team value caused by the 11th team’s entry. Renewal fees are common in North American cricket leagues. Many comparisons have been drawn with the recent expansion of the National Hockey League.
The teams feel that the current $200 million price tag to enter the field is too low and that $500 million would be a more appropriate price. The Vegas Golden Knights paid $500 million to join the NHL in 2017. Seattle Kraken paid $650 million to enter the tournament as the 32nd team in 2021. Fees expand into lucrative tournaments. of the continent, the National Basketball Association and the Major League Baseball, is more than $2 billion.
However, the comparison between Formula 1 and older franchise models broke down from the very beginning. Expansion fees typically grant access to the league, but also grant it to a large pool of the league’s existing players through the draft expansion. A mechanism to help new teams get up to speed. In addition, television revenue in franchised tournaments is divided equally among the teams to provide a financial basis for the construction. In Formula 1, new teams must fend for themselves to survive.
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It’s clear that F1’s teams are opposed to Andretti Global because they are opposed to any additional team. The teams can’t actively shut the gate to the paddock, but they will continually move the goalpost until no one can meet their requirements or decide to purchase a current team. The teams have seems to be underrated Michael Andretti’s resilience and resourcefulness to keep fighting for a place in Formula 1.
