There’s already an American team in Formula 1, Haas F1, which has been competing since 2016. Yet if the latest rumors turn out to be true, the sport may get a second team from the States.
Reports recently emerged that racing team Andretti Autosport could be interested in buying a majority stake of the Alfa Romeo Sauber F1 team’s ownership company, Islero Investments. With the reports come rumors of the race team making its way into Formula 1.
Although the reports remain sketchy at this point, there’s good reason to think that such a scheme would make sense for Andretti Autosport, as The Race covers in its video on the matter.
By purchasing the majority stake in Islero Investments, the American outfit would gain control over Sauber Motorsport and Sauber Engineering. That would all be attractive to Andretti Autosport since the independent team has an excellent infrastructure already, including an advanced wind tunnel.
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Buying control over an existing team would also be attractive for the Americans since new teams created out of whole cloth could potentially be subject to a $200 million entry fee. This would avoid that altogether while also avoiding the costs associated with starting a new F1 team in the first place.
Andretti Autosport has also officially signaled an interest in competing in Formula 1, although they wouldn’t really comment to questions about this deal.
“Entering Formula 1 has been of interest to Michael [Andretti] and the team for some time and we’ve explored many options over the years, but at this time we have nothing new to report,” the team said in a statement.
The move could also benefit Formula 1, which has openly expressed an interest in growing its exposure in the U.S. With Andretti Autosport driver Colton Herta increasingly linked to F1, the deal could even lead to an American driver returning to the grid.
As cost caps come in, along with new races in America, Andretti Autosport might not be the only team to whom F1 seems attractive.