Michael Andretti Says Failed F1 Bid “Has nothing to do with finances”

Photo credit: Icon Sportswire – Getty Images

• The discussions about Michael Andretti to buy a majority stake in the Alfa Romeo F1 team were considered far advanced, but ultimately failed.

• Andretti said it was control, not money, that caused the deal to fail.

• If Andretti had taken over the F1 team, IndyCar driver Colton Herta, along with Valtteri Bottas, would have been closely associated with an F1 seat.

Michael Andretti says that “control problems” were responsible for the fact that his Andretti Autosport organization was unable to reach an agreement with the Alfa Romeo-branded Sauber Formula 1 team on a possible sale.

Andretti was in talks to acquire a majority stake in the Switzerland-based Formula 1 team owned by Islero Investments, the company founded by billionaire owner Finn Rausing.

The discussions were considered well advanced but ultimately failed.

Rumors from the German press indicated that Andretti could not provide the long-term financial guarantee required by Islero Investments. Andretti said money is not the problem.

Photo credit: Chris Jones

Addressing the situation for the first time on Thursday when Devlin DeFrancesco announced for his IndyCar driver roster, Andretti said, “I think I just want to end some of these rumors that the (Alfa Romeo) deal has failed due to financial reasons.

“That couldn’t be further from the truth. It had nothing to do with that. It was essentially about control issues in the final hours of the negotiations. That ruined the deal. “

Andretti added: “Unfortunately the control problems changed to the 11th. I have always said that we only do it if it’s right for us and in the end it wasn’t right for us.”

He confirmed a suggestion that Sauber wanted him to buy the team but not control it.

Andretti clarified that there were no helping hands behind the scenes from Formula 1 owners Liberty Media, but that “I think they wanted it” and it “would have been a big story” for the championship.

The story goes on

Part of the proposed deal was to influence the driver market. Although there is currently no Formula 1 super license, Andretti IndyCar driver Colton Herta was closely associated with the seat alongside Valtteri Bottas – the only vacant position on the 2022 starting grid.

Andretti confirmed that he had planned to parachute Herta on the move as “I think he could be a competitive driver in Europe” and “he would lead the way for us when it comes to an American driver to bring “.

Since Alexander Rossis briefly at the end of 2015, while Scott Speed ​​was his predecessor from 2006-07, no American driver has been seen in Formula 1. The last American before that was Andretti himself, back in 1993 when he was having a difficult time at McLaren. The collapse of the Andretti / Sauber deal should pave the way for the Chinese Formula 2 driver Guanyu Zhou to join Alfa Romeo.

Andretti nevertheless refused to hoist the white flag for the Formula 1 ambitions of his company in the long term.

“We’ll always look for opportunities there, not just there, but also in other formulas, other racing sports,” he said.

“That’s what we do. We’re in the racing business and we’re always looking for opportunities to expand.

“But when we expand we have to make sure it’s a real deal that we know we can compete about because it’s very important for our brand to be competitive in everything we do.”