Michael Andretti and his team finally got the green signal to enter Formula 1 after the FIA agreed to have the second American team in the sport. Andretti paid an initial fee of $300,000, as per Associated Press, for the entry and would need a few more commercial businesses to take care of before they can officially field their car on the grid.
Andretti and his team have been waiting for a long time to have their place in the F1 grid. However, numerous objections from the existing teams have stalled their progress to this date.
Furthermore, an anti-dilution fee of $200 million was also added so that the team does not lose out on their winning bonuses. Despite this, they now have a potential F1 entry and have Cadillac as their engine manufacturer.
Did Andretti get the full license to field his team in F1?
Even though the FIA agreed to have Andretti Global in the sport, this still does not guarantee that Andretti and his team have a freeway to enter the grid in 2026.
Nevertheless, they can still enter the sport if they want to, but for that, they would need to buy an existing team. This is because the top players of F1 do not want another team to eat up their bonus earnings.
Notably, for the entry, the teams were asked to pay a sum of $300,000 fee and had four teams lined up for the entry. Apart from Andretti Global, they had Hitech GP, LKYSUNZ, and Rodin, who were interested in being the 11th team on the grid.
What hurdles did Andretti face on his way to land an F1 team?
Mercedes and Red Bull primarily objected to having a new team on the grid. Their team principals, Toto Wolff, and Christian Horner, respectively, revealed that they had invested too much in F1 and someone from outside [11th team] can’t just enter the sport and be a part of it.
On the other hand, other teams are also not ready to sell their teams as the price of them has increased significantly after Netflix’s Drive to Survive went viral.
Nevertheless, Michael Andretti finally has a chance to field a team on the grid, and for that, he might go for the drivers such as Mick Schumacher or IndyCar star Colton Herta.
