Formula 1 has finally managed to break into the US market in the last few years. Traditionally a European sport, F1 has tried to capture the American market for quite some time without much success. Recently, however, the sport has gained a lot of popularity throughout the United States.
Much of this popularity can be attributed to the Netflix series Drive to Survive. The web series introduced a lot of new fans to the ins and outs of the world of Formula 1. It presented the sport to the fans in a way that was easy to learn and accept.
This resulted in a huge increase in the following of Formula 1. This is quite evident in the fact that the 2022 edition of the United States Grand Prix had 440 thousand fans in attendance, the most number of people to have attended a Formula 1 race on US soil.
The Formula 1 figureheads have taken advantage of this rise in popularity. I introduced the Miami Grand Prix last year and Formula 1 will also travel to Las Vegas this year. This makes it a total of three races in the US itself.
Andretti wants to introduce an American team on the F1 grid
The Andretti family, a powerhouse in the field of Motorsports in America, have already expressed their desire of fielding a team in Formula 1. They have already tied up with General Motors via a deal with Cadillac and have started talks with Formula One Management. It is expected that F1 will complete the receipt of applications for new F1 teams within this week.
Mario Andretti, the father of Michael Andretti, has made it very clear that it will benefit Formula 1 if they have an American team on the grid. “Let’s face it, as international as Formula 1 is, to have a really strong American team and manufacturer, that must be good for it,” said Mario.
He explained that even though Gene Haas has a team on the grid, it lacks in essence since there are no American drivers. Michael, on the other hand, has promised that he would always have an American driver on the team. “There’s a lot at stake. It’s a huge long-term commitment that we submitted and I won’t understand it being rejected,” explained Mario Andretti.
Current Formula 1 teams are not really on board with the idea
Even though Andretti Autosport has floated around the idea of them joining the grid for a long time, not all the current F1 teams support the idea. This is because if a new team joins the grid, it would dilute the value of the revenue that the other teams receive.
Even though Formula 1 has mandated that any new team entering the grid would have to pay an expansion fee of 200 million dollars. Most of the current Formula 1 teams believe that it is too low for the amount of revenue and fans that they would be losing out on.
