Andretti F1 - 2025

[Teretonga]

Originally Posted by Alan52

Reported today on Speedcafe that the CEO of Liberty told Mario in Miami that he would do “whatever it takes” to keep Andretti out of F1.

If true, hat would not surprise me.
Bernie said long ago that ten teams were enough and when you have a grid that is covered by about two seconds and a top ten covered by less than a second you have ten 'competitive' teams.

The rest can be all hype, glitz, and glamour, and the rest of the proletariat will soak it all up completely unaware of where it came from, its history, relevance, and background. None of that matters if you are taught to live in the moment, forget the past, and that only the present is relevant and real.

You only have to watch like a fly on the wall at Davos to understand the extremes people, who have money and the control it can bring at their fingertips, will go to shape their brave new world and take people to where the rich want them to be and dance to their pipe. Liberty is no different to BlackRock, Vanguard, State Street Global, UBS, Fidelity, Allianz etc. Its smaller but its influence and place in the landscape of influence is persuasive.

Since Liberty came in and Bernie left the shop F1 has been grabbed with both hands by people who understood the amount of power it had to be used as a tool on the stage of mass global entertainment.
Bernie and his band of enthusiasts had taken it as far as it could go in their hands, but that doesn't mean where it goes now is an improvement or for the better of the sport or the people who work in it.

And if you doubt my thinking on trends in F1 to a closed shop group who simply run a global entertainment business is extreme, then look at WEC which is currently operated by the ACO rather than the FIA, and IndyCar which is owned and effectively operated by Penske entertainment.

IndyCar will operate with 25 charters to the existing teams, 5 of which will have three charters and five will have two charters. They will be guaranteed a starting spot regardless of competitiveness and only those 25 charters are entitled to the end of season split of series profits.

WEC has a limited field, now restricted to 9 teams of GT3, representing 9 different manufacturers plus about 20 entrants to the Hyperclass, and rumor has it that in future each of the teams will be required to front up with two entries, so single entries and one-off private entries will disappear.

International motorsport is disappearing up the derriere of people who love to control and command how people should behave and how the rest of people simply need to accept and conform to their way of thinking, because 'they' know what things are best and how things should be done.

And the rest of us should just shut up, conform to their precepts and accept it as a 'fait accompli'.