Red Bull & Mercedes ‘Short-Sighted’ Refusing to Usher In Andretti F1 Team

It has been quite an active couple of weeks for Formula One with the teams experiencing their 2022 challengers for the first time on the track and the FIA busy drafting out a response for Andretti’s request to join the F1 grid by 2024.

The owner, Michael Andretti, has been seeking a spot on the racing grid for over six months now having held talks with a handful of existing racing outfits, including Alfa Romeo. It all began with Haas followed by Williams before resting his final hopes on the Sauber-led outfit. However, the financial demands were reportedly too high, forcing Andretti to back out and hunt for other options.

And then arrived Plan B – starting a team of his own from scratch. So far, it has been a promising journey for the American squad, with a formal engine agreement now in place with Renault. Hence, all that’s obstructing Andretti’s dream F1 debut is approval from the FIA, which, as of now, seems like the most practical scenario.

But, consequently, a lot of team bosses including Toto Wolff and Christian Horner have shown displeasure with Andretti joining F1. The Austrian, quite recently, pointed out that Andretti must prove that his arrival could bring added value to the sport. Well, Zak Brown has now contradicted the duo’s suggestion.

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Zak Brown opposes rival F1 team bosses

Speaking to Motorsport, Brown countered Wolff and Horner’s suggestion by reckoning that Andretti could attract a load of fans from the Northern parts of the United States.

“I think Andretti as a name, as a highly credible racing team, and knowing who his backers are, and who he is, they will no doubt help us grow the sport in North America,” he said.

“I think the teams that may not support another team are being short-sighted. Are we trying to grow the sport? Or are we doing what racing teams have a bad tendency to do, which is think about today and not the future?”

Overall, Andretti’s arrival could be a blessing for F1, a sport that has seen a massive spurt in fan-following in recent times around the United States. So, will the American outfit’s potential entry boost Formula One’s fame around the country?

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