Formula 1 should retain sole authority over the admission of teams into the sport’s highest echelon, not the US Congress, asserts Alessandro Alunni Bravi, spokesperson for the Sauber team, which is now fully owned by Audi.
Formula 1 should retain sole authority over the admission of teams into the sport’s highest echelon, not the US Congress, asserts Alessandro Alunni Bravi, spokesperson for the Sauber team, which is now fully owned by Audi.
Recently, the prospect of Andretti-Cadillac joining F1 was blocked by the sport’s commercial rights holder, Liberty Media. This led to the initiation of a US congressional investigation, describing the exclusion as “cartel-like.”
“I’m not overly familiar with the US judicial system,” asserts Williams team principal James Vowles. “What I can state is there was a due process completed by the FIA and FOM, and we don’t have a say in any of that.”
Mike Krack of Aston Martin added, “We’re really passengers in this. We also just read it on the internet, in between the (Adrian) Newey stories, so I cannot really add anything more,” he noted with a smile.
Despite being currently barred from the pitlane, Andretti and General Motors argue that the existing teams’ behind-the-scenes opposition played a role in the decision by F1.
Sauber-Audi’s Alunni Bravi acknowledges the importance of governmental support for national enterprises but stresses that decisions regarding team entries should remain within F1’s purview, as stated by motorsport-total.com.
“I understand that it may be important for a government to support companies in its own country. But I believe that this is a question that should be answered by those in Formula 1 who have the right to make such decisions,” he explained.
“Just because we have three races in the USA and many American companies are involved in Formula 1 does not automatically mean that we also need a team from the USA. And we already have that anyway – Haas. At the same time, we do not have a single team from Saudi Arabia or Qatar, although we race there too,” Alunni Bravi concluded.
