Andretti looking at F1 Team *New Team application made*

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Andretti looking at F1 Team *New Team application made*

#1

Post by Everso Biggyballies »

I have been seeing articles of Michael Andretti looking to buy into an F1 team on a "soon as" basis for a while now.

Andretti’s teams race in IndyCar, Formula E and Extreme E. They have run / operated teams on behalf of manufacturers in commercial arrangements before. (ie BMW in Formula E)

Team budget caps and a more sustainable arrangement with the F1 owners seems to have made F1 team ownership once more a good time to buy. Of course this also seems a good time from an American angle given the Liberty ownership and their seeming pushing more US involvement and events for the future will only boost F1 awareness and following in the US..

Linking in with McLaren was an early rumour (he already has arrangement and co-ownership deals with Zak Brown - Walkinshaw Andretti United in Aussie Supercars) but given McLaren is tied up by the Bahraini Govt pretty much that is not going to happen. The Haas name came up, as did Williams last year when their sale was mooted. They were all dead ends, but the rumours of Andretti and F1 in the same sentence continued.

All sorts of names were being plucked from various minds but it seems now that the team formerly known as Sauber is the hot tip....

Andretti tipped to take majority stake in Sauber’s F1 team

This makes sense as the team has been owned by an investment company (Swedish investment firm Longbow Finance) for the past few years.... we all know that the Alfa Romeo naming of the team is purely a commercial (ie sponsorship) arrangement with zero shareholding by Alfa.

There seems to be a lot of folk involved to be declining to comment which makes me think there is something in it. They are just asking the wrong people the questions..... Vasseur might be Team principal but he has zero ownership or shareholding of the team. He is not the guy to ask. No one in the team is.... they are just the owners "gofers".

On the other hand an Andretti 'Spokesperson' said. it has been on the cards (a move into F1 ownership) for some time, nd if the right opportunity ame along they would jump at it. Is this the right opportunity? That is the $64 million question .....

The numbers mentioned in the following article look high to me but if. they are fact then I can see an investment company always keen to move an asset on at the right money, would bite a potential purchasers arm off. They certainly paid an awful lot less for it.

This article seems to be on the money I reckon. Interesting times ahead for the rumour mill.
CART Indycar champion and former Formula 1 driver Michael Andretti is understood to be pursuing a takeover of Sauber, which runs Alfa Romeo’s team.

It has been learned Andretti is closing on a deal to buy 80% of shares in Islero Investments at a price of €350 million (£296.86m), putting it in control of the Sauber Motorsport and Sauber Engineering divisions.

Andretti formed the Andretti Acquisition Corporation in March with a target of raising at least $250 million (£183.49m) through an initial public offering. However a spokesperson for the acquisition corporation told RaceFans it is not involved.

The Andretti operation already includes a successful IndyCar team, which won the Indianapolis 500 on three out of four occasions between 2014 and 2017, and recently hired ex-F1 driver Romain Grosjean. They also have a Formula E team, which until this year was linked to BMW, and entered the inaugural season of Extreme E this year.

Andretti’s interest in Sauber has been long rumoured.
The F1 team was purchased by Swedish investment firm Longbow Finance in 2016. Under the Alfa Romeo brand it has scaled up in recent seasons, doubling its F1 workforce to over 500 employees, and hired Valtteri Bottas to join it from Mercedes next year. The team is yet to announce its second driver for 2022.

Although Alfa Romeo has fallen to ninth out of 10 teams in the championship this year, it has reduced its deficit to the front runners since its 2016 takeover. Having languished 4.3% off the pace on average in 2017 it has cut that deficit to 1.5% this year.
An Andretti spokesperson declined to confirm the company was making a move to buy Sauber.

“As is no secret, Formula 1 has been of interest to Michael and the team for some time,” they told RaceFans. “We’ve explored and come close on many options over the years, but we have nothing new to report.

“Our passion is racing, in all forms. Should a proper opportunity come along to take the Andretti name back to F1, we’d jump at it. But as of now, that opportunity has not fallen in our laps and our focus remains on our seven current disciplines of competition.”

An Alfa Romeo F1 team spokesperson declined to comment when approached.
https://www.racefans.net/2021/10/08/and ... s-f1-team/
Last edited by Everso Biggyballies 2 years ago, edited 2 times in total.

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#2

Post by Everso Biggyballies »

Already an update on this rumour..... one that seem to say or promote the 'smoke = fire' etc scenario

....Michael Andretti’s hopes of taking over an F1 team appear a step closer with significant talks with Sauber advancing, with further discussions / negotiations planned— set for the United States Grand Prix weekend at COTA in Austin.

Also this alleged discussion is seen as a potential excuse over the seeming tardiness in Alfa firming up on their second seat. Could it be because a new owner might have some thoughts of their own preferred driver....? :suspicious:

Anyway, more on the alleged US meeting and matters arising here:
https://racer.com/2021/10/08/andretti-s ... in-austin/

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#3

Post by MonteCristo »

Everso Biggyballies wrote: 2 years ago Could it be because a new owner might have some thoughts of their own preferred driver....? :suspicious:
Marco was just taking a sabbatical...

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#4

Post by Everso Biggyballies »

MonteCristo wrote: 2 years ago
Everso Biggyballies wrote: 2 years ago Could it be because a new owner might have some thoughts of their own preferred driver....? :suspicious:
Marco was just taking a sabbatical...

#strollfever
He wants Marco to do a worse job than he did of F1. :whistling:

Of course we all think he signed RoGro for Indycar...... :whistling:

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#5

Post by Vassago »

Things are perhaps heating up? Looks like Helio's PR guy has a scoop.

https://www.planetf1.com/news/colton-he ... lfa-romeo/
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#6

Post by Everso Biggyballies »

Wow this has gone from a rumour to something with it seems substance in the space of about 24 hours.

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#7

Post by Ruslan »

Love to see this, but I am still not sure if it is likely. I am not sure if Andretti has the financial assets for F1.
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#8

Post by XcraigX »

Everso Biggyballies wrote: 2 years ago Wow this has gone from a rumour to something with it seems substance in the space of about 24 hours.
So perhaps it was less rummor and more like a leak of something they were trying to keep hush-hush.
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#9

Post by MonteCristo »

Please don't take Colton :(.

Also, the fact he hasn't been to some circuits for 5 years, and never been to other regular tracks that the F2/F3 guys go to, would put on severely on the back foot.
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#10

Post by Everso Biggyballies »

MonteCristo wrote: 2 years ago Please don't take Colton :(.

Also, the fact he hasn't been to some circuits for 5 years, and never been to other regular tracks that the F2/F3 guys go to, would put on severely on the back foot.
Im not sure he would even qualify for an F1 Superlicence without a special dispensation. Just sayin' :suspicious: :wink:

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#11

Post by Star »

So now all these drivers who don't have a seat for 2022 have to start phoning another number, just in case.

The team name might change but will it really make a huge difference? I mean I'd like to think so but past experience shows it often doesn't mean a lot other than a new name and change of colour scheme sadly.
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#12

Post by Everso Biggyballies »

Star wrote: 2 years ago So now all these drivers who don't have a seat for 2022 have to start phoning another number, just in case.

The team name might change but will it really make a huge difference? I mean I'd like to think so but past experience shows it often doesn't mean a lot other than a new name and change of colour scheme sadly.
And seeing as Alfa Romeo have just renewed a long naming rights commercial agreement with Sauber (no doubt becoming one of the 'assets' that will influence their purchase decision, the colour isnt likely to change all that soon. The Sauber name might become Andretti Motorsport or whatever, but only the name over the door will change. The same staff using the same premises and machinery will be manufacturing and running the car. Of course there will be some changes of management likely but there has been no thought or mention of any relocation. My understanding is that the Sauber wind tunnel is one of the best in F1 and used to be the benchmark others strived to match.

Drivers of course is another thing beyond Bottas..... the delay on the naming of the #2 has no need to be a quick decision, and leaving the seat vacant is obviously something a new owner would be happy with as it gives someone like Andretti leverage to put their own driver in ie Herta, which could work well with their own US sponsors and the so it seems gravitation of F1 to a more American association. Of course they know how much money they wish to put into the new business, and that will also influence whether they need to look at outside drivers like Zhou who has an enticing 30 million Euros of backing (but comes with the risks associated with running someone from another teams Junior driver programme (Alpine). They could even go for someone like the existing Sauber junior driver Theo Pourchaire.... maybe keep Gio for another year with Theo as a Friday / test / reserve.

But they are decisions any new owner would take given a buyer is found.

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#13

Post by Ruslan »

Everso Biggyballies wrote: 2 years ago
MonteCristo wrote: 2 years ago Please don't take Colton :(.

Also, the fact he hasn't been to some circuits for 5 years, and never been to other regular tracks that the F2/F3 guys go to, would put on severely on the back foot.
Im not sure he would even qualify for an F1 Superlicence without a special dispensation. Just sayin' :suspicious: :wink:
According to what I read he does not qualify for a super license but has enough relevant experience that they could give him a waiver. I don’t think this would be an issue.
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#14

Post by Everso Biggyballies »

It seems rumours were running that we might have been going to hear some sort of statement on the status of the Andretti Sauber buy in at this weekends COTA event. There was also talk of Herta doing the Friday morning session in one of the Alfas, but that is all now on hold. Racer have run this following article about the weekend in regards to Andetti and Sauber Alfa.
No Andretti F1 announcement planned for COTA weekend[

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#15

Post by Vassago »

Ralf Schumacher (currently a Sky Germany expert) says Andretti has bought 80% of the Sauber shares. RTL has run this story as well.

https://sport.sky.de/formel1/artikel/fo ... 1709/34270

https://www.rtl.de/cms/formel-1-ralf-sc ... 53192.html

https://www.gpblog.com/en/news/96924/no ... romeo.html
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