Lewis Hamilton has recently taken a U-turn from supporting Michael Andretti and his team. Even though the Mercedes star supported the green signal given by the FIA on Andretti, his recent comment on X says otherwise.
Andretti paid the fee of $300,000 to grab an entry in F1 and agreed to pay a sum of $20,000,000 as an anti-dilution fee to all the existing teams. By getting the nod, they became the only team to be considered among the four outfits that wanted to get into F1.
Everything to play for Sunday. Time to get stuck in. 📈 pic.twitter.com/1ULiKZXNYV
— Mercedes-AMG PETRONAS F1 Team (@MercedesAMGF1) October 6, 2023
Even though Andretti Global passed the FIA hurdle to grab the entry, they still need the final say from Formula One Management. As things stand, Andretti’s fate still hangs in balance.
Lewis Hamilton and his contradictory statements
Hamilton, speaking about Andretti’s entry into F1, initially said that he supports the move since it will add diversity to the sport. This had been a much-needed impetus for the potential American team amid the series of objections.
However, the seven-time world champion clarified by stating that he doesn’t support Andretti, but an 11th team in general. Therefore, Andretti does not have direct support from Lewis Hamilton for being the 11th team.
Nope, don’t support Andretti. Just the idea of another team in future if it’s a chance to make our sport more diverse ~
— Lewis Hamilton (@LewisHamilton) October 6, 2023
As there was a spree of news on Hamilton’s support for Andretti, the Silver Arrows ace came out to clarify himself from his personal X account. He wrote in a reply to deni on X, formerly Twitter, “Nope, don’t support Andretti. Just the idea of another team in future if it’s a chance to make our sport more diverse.”
Andretti and the series of opposition against him
Even though Michael Andretti got the much needed green signal from the FIA, he still needs the nod from the F1 group to field his team on the grid. Over the last few months, he has to deal with plenty of roadblocks, from F1 team principals in particular.
It was Christian Horner and Toto Wolff initially who opposed the 11th team’s entry into the sport. They primarily objected to citing the dilution of the profit margin.
They were followed by Lawrence Stroll and James Vowles who said the same on a new entry. Stroll was happy with the existing ten teams and Vowles did not want a new team to see a reduction in profit. However, drivers like Max Verstappen and Fernando Alonso are very much supportive of the new entry.
