The Andretti name remains one of the best known in the world of motorsports, both in the United States and in Europe, especially thanks to Mario Andretti, who won the Formula One world championship and raced for Scuderia Ferrari in 1971 and 1972, with a brief return also in 1982. He also secured four IndyCar titles and a victory at the Indy 500.
One of the most successful Americans in the history of motorsports, Mario Andretti is one of only two drivers to have won races in Formula One, IndyCar, the World Sportscar Championship, and NASCAR. His son Michael is also an ex Formula 1 driver and won the IndyCar championship in 1991.
American semi-retired auto racing driver is also been an owner in the North American series for several seasons under the Andretti name. His drivers have taken race victories, titles and won the Indy 500. Now the Andretti family has a new and ambitious target, which is to join Formula 1 with their own team, following a failed attempt to reach an agreement with Sauber.
In a recent interview for MotorLAT, former Ferrari driver Mario Andretti discussed the plans of his 59-year-old son.
“It’s been quite a while. I’ve been hearing him talking about this in the last five years at least.” – Mario Andretti replied, when asked by MotorLAT about how long Michael Andretti has been interested in managing a Formula 1 team – “It’s part of his ambition as a car owner. He expanded his operations, even as far as Australia [Andretti own a stake in the Walkinshaw team in V8 Supercars]. Motor racing is his business. He lives and breathes this sport like we always did. Now in his capacity as an owner, he just wants to take advantage of the opportunity to stay at the top level. Why not Formula One? Gene Haas did it. He’s not a 100% racer – we’re 100% racers. He has fabulous backing, people that are serious and capable. Everything is for the long-term. Obviously we’re experiencing some resistance – and it’s very disappointing at the moment. Are we giving up? No. I think we deserve to be there.” – he added.
There is a strong opposition in Formula 1 regarding the idea of Andretti joining the sport, and one of the most vocal opponents has been Toto Wolf, team principal of Mercedes. During the Hungarian Grand Prix weekend, which was the last race ahead of the summer break, Toto Wolff seemed more enthusiastic about the potential of a manufacturer like Audi entering Formula 1 starting with the 2026 F1 campaign as a new team rather than Andretti.
Mario Andretti feels there is no issue with manufacturers joining the sport, but at the same time he points what he feels is a big difference: Andretti want to enter Formula 1 to stay:
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“We hear resistance with ‘okay, manufacturers [are] coming in’ – manufacturers are always welcome, no question. Why wouldn’t they be? Toto mentions Audi and [he says] we’d rather have Audi as the eleventh team. In my opinion, Audi would be welcome anywhere, no question. But I don’t see Audi been a start-up team. I see Audi actually merging with a top team as an engine supplier. I’ll tell you why. You can better justify the investment because as an engine supplier with any team – you win races, the engine wins – when you don’t win races, it’s the team’s fault. It’s always like that and that’s the way it is. It’s fine. We’re one of the teams that would be open for another manufacturer. We’re working already with the present manufacturers to make some decisions; that’s the way it works. You absolutely welcome manufacturers but the manufacturers come and go. We don’t come and go – we come and stay. Manufacturers don’t depend on the sport – we do. It’s our life. That’s all we do. We breathe this. Why deprive us from it? We’re serious about it.” – the former Ferrari driver.
Almost ten years have passed since Formula 1 had more than ten teams on the starting grid. Since then, the main focus was making sure that teams are able to financially sustain their presence in the sport, with several key measures, like the idea of introducing the budget cap, taken in order to reduce expenses. As a result, there have not been a lot of discussions regarding the possibility of new teams joining Formula 1 without merging with a team that was already involved in the sport.
Mario Andretti feels that they would have a large contribution to improving the show, without the intention of harming any potential competitors in the future: “It’s not a bad thing for Formula One to have eleven or twelve teams quite honestly. I don’t know why they’re resisting and thinking ten teams are enough. We’re not giving up by any means because this is our life. We want to contribute and we don’t want to take anything away from anyone. We want to contribute for the big picture and ourselves.” – he added.
For now, it seems difficult for them to receive a place on the grid for the 2024 Formula 1 season, but Mario Andretti says that they are already in full swing with regards to the project, while Renault is ok with supplying power units to them.
“We’re working already. It’s not that when they tell us ‘okay, go’ that we’ll start. We’re working on it. This has been a work in progress since the decision was made to go. It’s not that all of sudden we go ‘oh yes, now we’re going to lay out the first brick’, no. A lot of people don’t realise we’re taking a big risk because there’s a lot of investment already going on with the hope that proper reasoning will prevail in this because it’s an honest approach. I just don’t understand where there is a negative.”
While fans and the media are intrigued about Andretti’s project, a large part of the paddock has had a rather strong and underwhelming reaction to Andretti’s attempt to enter Formula One. The former Ferrari driver admitted it hurts that the credibility of the bid is been questioned by some teams.
“I just don’t understand some of the objections that we’re hearing from the other teams. You hear some of the comments like that we’re not credible and all that sort of thing – that hurts. It’s very offensive – we’ve been around much longer than the people that have been talking to us. I think so for sure. We have some,” said Andretti when asked if he has the support of two or three teams. “Some of the ones that don’t want us, I don’t know why. Give us specific reasons and maybe we’ll see if we can fix it. Tell us exactly where the objection is and maybe we can shed some light on something like that. Maybe it’s not what you really think.” – he continued.
The popularity of Formula 1 in the United States has been constantly increasing in the last few seasons, up to the point of determining the sport’s top management to organize three races in the United States next year. This was the result of Formula 1’s improved activities related to the social media platforms since Liberty Media took over, while Drive to Survive had of course a large contribution in the increased ratings. It’s undeniable that Netflix’s hit docuseries ‘Drive to Survive’ has played a role in that growth by bringing the sport to a wider audience.
Given the prospect of a new American-owned team on the grid for the 2024 Formula 1 season (alongside Haas), Mario Andretti believes their project and bid to join Formula 1 should be seen as a great chance to further expand the fanbase in the United States, especially taking into consideration the fact that they would have Californian Colton Herta as one of their drivers.
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“Why not? I think so. With three Grands Prix in the United States, to have another American F1 team with at least one American driver, you cannot tell me that would not be a positive thing for Formula One. We’d like to think that we’d be an asset to F1 in that respect.”
The project presented by Andretti is not only related to Formula 1: Michael Andretti has committed to having teams in Formula 2 and Formula 3, which would represent a great chance for young American drivers to show their abilities in the junior categories below Formula 1, with the goal of finding a place on the grid in the pinnacle of motorsport.
This was already done by the Andretti family in the IndyCar Series by promoting drivers from their Indy Lights team: “Michael and the team – and this is clear – they’re committing to field teams in Formula 3 and Formula 2 as well. How many major Formula One teams have Formula 3 or Formula 2 teams? Name me one? No, they don’t. We would. This is something that was promised and committed to the FIA because Michael has done this on his own. [Andretti Autosport] is basically the only team [from IndyCar] that field [cars] in Indy Lights. He has brought up talents right from those ranks, and so there’s another thing that I think is a plus. We’re all in.” – former Scuderia Ferrari driver Mario Andretti concluded.

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