RACING LINES
How convenient that news of Lewis Hamilton’s defection to Ferrari for 2025 came when it did. The day before, Formula 1 had issued a fatuous rejection of the Andretti Cadillac bid to join the grid in 2025, triggering a justified torrent of fury and exasperation.
Hamilton’s stunning decision was a useful distraction – but only briefly. The snub to one of America’s great racing families and a well-respected racing organisation that competes across half a dozen forms of global motorsport was an insult that also stretched to a strange dismissal of General Motors and an iconic automotive brand in the very country upon which F1’s American promoter has invested so much to further the popularity and expansion of its precious property.
Take a step back from the greed, self-interest and politics, and the decision is dumbfounding.
To recap in brief, the FIA, which governs and ultimately owns the sport, granted Michael Andretti’s organisation an entry. But as the commercial rights holder, Liberty Media-owned F1 had the deciding right of veto, which it exercised on the last day of January through an incendiary statement.
“Our assessment did not involve any consultation with the current F1 teams,” it read, acknowledging that most have publicly admitted they don’t want to expand the grid and thereby reduce their portion of F1’s financial pie. “However, in considering the best interests of the championship, we took account of the impact of the entry of an 11th team on all commercial stakeholders in the championship.”
F1 isn’t technically a franchise system, because the teams don’t co-own the commercial rights, but in practice that’s how it works. Perhaps ‘cartel’ is a more accurate term?
Then there was this: “While the Andretti name carries some recognition for F1 fans, our research indicates that F1 would bring value to the Andretti brand rather than the other way around.”
The slur wasn’t even shrouded within an insinuation. Meanwhile, Andretti has already hired UK-based engineering workforce and released an image of a wind-tunnel model prior to the rejection. This can’t and shouldn’t be the end of a story that won’t be buried so easily.
PENSKE MOTORS ON
Would F1 have treated Roger Penske with such open disdain, were he to try to return after half a century away? Actually, probably… although I would have liked to see how that would have played out.
