'Andretti wants partnership with Alpine and American driver in F1'

Andretti in F1

Andretti wants to enter Formula 1 as the eleventh team. The son of the legendary Mario Andretti owns the race team that is currently active in IndyCar, IMSA and Formula E, among others. Andretti wants to join under his own name, but not all F1 teams are waiting for that and the FIA is also waiting for a decision.

The biggest problem is the distribution of money. With an eleventh team, the total budget has to be divided over more teams. That means lower income for all the other teams. These are partly compensated by Andretti's $200 million entry fee, but that only covers the losses of the first two seasons.

Cooperation with Alpine

The small teams are, according to Auto, Motor und Sport also fear for their place. An extra team means more competition and a lower spot in the rankings means even less revenue. The big teams have their own concerns. They would be especially afraid of losing their staff to the new team.

Laurent Rossi, the CEO of Alpine, does give support to the new team and that is not surprising. Andretti would enter into a partnership with Alpine, as Haas has with Ferrari. That way, costs can be saved. Andretti would also have already looked around for employees with F1 experience and would even have already drawn up different contracts.

Will Andretti get a spot?

Colton Herta would become Andretti's driver, and the collaboration with Alpine may yield a seat for one of the Alpine Academy talents. Andretti itself is already looking at possible collaborations with Formula 2 and Formula 3 teams to better monitor talent.

For now, Andretti must wait for an answer from the FIA. Andretti must first meet all the FIA's criteria (Andretti himself says this is not a problem) and then the motorsports federation also needs the approval of Liberty Media. The rights holders of F1 have said they will only give permission if there is a clear benefit for F1. Andretti points especially to the additional income that Formula 1 will bring in by expanding the American market with an additional American team and an American driver.