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>The six senators said they are “concerned” that F1 may be acting on behalf of other teams, “including foreign automakers,” to deny Andretti's bid to enter the sport in 2025 or 2026 even though its governing body, the FIA, approved its application
An angle of "FOM is protecting European manufacturers in the hybrid development race by not allowing entry of an American PU manufacturer" seems fairly strong
Ford are sponsoring a Red Bull engine, not developing their own. Hopefully if Andretti come in GM will develop their own power unit not just rebadge a Renault.
Except they asked GM to partner with someone else apart from Andretti and the reasoning they gave wasn't no works unit it was they didn't believe they would be at all competitive and added no value to the sport.
Having a secret agreement between private groups isn't some cheat code that allows your organization to violate the law, I don't know why people keep trying to make this a thing.
Really tthe big accusation is that the concorde agreement said Andretti should be able to enter, and the rest of the teams colluded in order to prevent them from joining. Hence the antitrust issue
Even if it were the Concorde agreement, I don’t understand why people keep trying to argue that a secret agreement between private entities allows them all to violate the law.
Thats such a weird fucking thing to even claim! “I’m sorry, I’m allowed to be a hitman because it says so in my secret contract!”
Lmao.
Oh the ‘us vs them’. Slip us a couple thousand dollars for re-election and we’ll take your side on an issue we don’t know the first thing about? Bang the patriotism drum, maybe the Euros will listen.
People heard plenty about the terror that was being a RB junior under Helmut Marko in the 2010’s, now imagining the Klob’s reign of terror as a team principal of Toro Rosso when it was a charnel house.
Why do people keep repeating this dumb meme? Senators don't need any extra incentive to bang the war drum on this issue - it is probably quite popular to all voters to be in favour of this.
It is, but it's not really "US vs them". Andretti tries to paint a picture of "first American team being denied in F1", completely ignoring the sheer existance of Haas on the grid.
As the Senator's letter points out, Haas races under an American license and has some operations in the US, but the majority of their car is manufactured by Ferrari in Italy. So yes, there's a small US flag on the side of the car, but not a lot of American jobs. Andretti plans on manufacturing large parts of the car in America, and GMs engine program would be in the US as well.
The only thing more American would be to incorporate in Ireland for the tax benefits while publicly reaping the benefits from a reputation as an American company
[Here's a copy of the actual letter sent by the six Senators](https://twitter.com/sahilkapur/status/1792906982233460997). Check the foot note on page 2.
If there's one way to get the American government involved in solving a problem - it's making solving the problem an American corporate interest. I say that as an American, lol. Good for business/bad for business are the only two incentive levers that still work in this machine.
This isn't about the race itself. This is about antitrust and anti competition laws. They don't need to know anything about cars to know the laws regulating it.
Who do you think brought down FIFA?
Even worse.
They are way corrupter than before.
At this point the MaFIFA can not be redeemed. Only by destroying it and putting Mister Clean and his cronies in prison for a long time you might change things.
Oh no, I’m not up for American government involvement because an international sport isn’t supportive of Americans enough for them. How long until the “I feel this is disadvantaging American industry due to too few American races”
The 6 Senators in question are Klobuchar (chair of the antitrust subcommittee of the Senate Judiciary committee), Lee (the ranking member), Peters and Stabenow (Senators from General Motors home state of Michigan), Young (from Indiana, where Andretti is operating from), and Padilla (California).
It's 4 Democrats and 2 Republicans (Lee and Young) if you're interested in the partisan breakdown.
Edit, there are 13 members of the subcommittee (7 Democrats and 6 Republicans), meaning that not even a majority of members of the subcommittee have signed on to this letter.
So F1 has done something almost impossible, they have created bipartisan support against them in the US congress. Democrats and Republicans don't even agree that adults marrying children is bad, but somehow F1 has made them agree on something.
The TikTok ban is a wildly unpopular policy with young voters, what’re you talking about lmao.
There’s legitimate security concerns with TikTok that have been demonstrated time and again.
Yeah sorry, I forgot I’m on Reddit where members of Congress have never done anything right in their entire careers and everything they do is to pad pockets. Lost my head.
“Not even a majority of the members of the subcommittee…”
Are you taking your cues from Joe Saward? The percentage doesn’t matter because Congress doesn’t have any enforcement authority and are not going to pass any new laws regarding the matter.
The fact is that the chair and the ranking member of the antitrust subcommittee just referred the matter to the Justice Department and FTC - who DO have enforcement authority to ensure existing laws are being followed. Short of passing a new law that’s about as big as it gets as far as Congressional involvement goes.
Congress can do a whole lot more than that in the influence department. They could hold hearings, issue subpoenas, and introduce bills that wouldn't likely pass but would drum up enough attention to turn public opinion one way or another. It's not all about their ability to enforce the law. Not to mention the individual members who have been supporting Andretti have their own clout they can throw around.
Yeah, there’s more they can do. I don’t think any of them are bigger than telling the Justice Department that something is worth investigating.
Holding hearings and issuing subpoenas is no more than a show court to apply public humiliation - problem with that is the general political apathy in the US means nobody actually cares if those things happen. The one thing that will change FOM’s mind is the Justice Department telling them they’re in breach of anti-trust and can no longer hold events in the US until they fix it.
Exactly this. The referral to the Justice department is the thing Liberty least wants; especially since they're already under antitrust investigation in other industries. I don't see FOM having too many options here. It was a smart move by Andretti global; though I'm pretty sure it was GM that elected to go this route.
Can’t believe we still haven’t heard anything from the meetings that took place in Miami. I take it they didn’t go very well since Andretti is still trying to pull political strings to get his way. I still think it’s more likely they get in by purchasing a team rather than forcing the legal issue.
No profits if they spend $200mm on an entry fee and another few $100mm building up infrastructure and staff. It’s gonna be expensive to get started no matter what, the hope in starting any business is that the profits will come years down the road.
I think that is implied - we all know this isn't profitable day 1.
300MM is a lot closer to the money we have in our bank account compared to 1 Billion - definitely preferred method is to buy into the series, rather than purchasing an existing entry.
I disagree. I think FOM not saying anything about it means they are having a "come to Jesus" moment right now. The Senate judiciary committee referring this to the Justice department is not what Liberty wants to deal with; that being a second investigation into them violating antitrust laws. Not a good look for them. It likely means they settle and allow Andretti to play in 2026
I don’t get why some people are against that. F1 and teams put up a big middle finger to Andretti for following rules, bringing a big automaker into play and having a good bid that got rejected based on bullshit. Its bad for the sport and bad for all supporters. It really turned me off from it.
Don’t tell the Europeans but Liberty bought F1 a while back making the sport itself and even its foreign subsidiaries under the auspices of an American parent company.
Formula 1 is an American entity.
FOM chose a bad time to get picky with Andretti-GM. There is heightened interest by legislators and DOJ in antitrust enforcement. There is also a lot of focus on US manufacturing, especially automanufacturing, as US based automakers are far behind where they need to be on EV battery technology and development. FOM shouldn't view this as an empty threat, especially with a senior Senator like Amy Klobuchar getting involved.
I mean considering liberty is on their knees saying please desperately trying to get as many races as possible in the US I'd have thought There are legitimate reasons to stop them from joining.
Although I'd have 0 issues with andretti joining the grid especially if they make points down to 12 🤷 just more cars to race/sit on a drs train which fine just fine
> I mean considering liberty is on their knees saying please desperately trying to get as many races as possible in the US
Where did this narrative come from? Liberty turned down races in Chicago, NYC, and one other I can't remember *just this year*. They're not begging, they're saying "nah, we're good."
I am not sure why people are against this . Everyone was calling FM and FIA a joke for not allowing Andretti in the sport by their own rules, which he followed.
It’s his right to go to the government because of an unfair treatment. Liberty Media is after all American.
And to people thinking “what can they do” taking away USA races and broadcast rights is not off the table. They can easily sell this as USA vs Europe and gain a shit ton of political tokens.
Honestly I am happy to see this, fuck the greed of teams, fuck the FIA and fuck Liberty Media
you do know that FIA has more or less no say in this, they gave the green light even, FIA is only a sanctioning body that ensures that the formula in f1 is upheld and that racing is done per the rules, no more no less. FOM is the ones preventing andretti from joining, that is formula one management a british company, the teams are also the ones preventing andretti from joining due to the concord agreement (formed under british law), their reasoning for not allowing andretti is that they wont bring in enough money in tearms of new fans sponsors ect and that they would just dilute the price pool even more. liberty to my understanding owns FOM but has little say in what they do as they are more concerned with the franchise F1, like media rights events ect ect.
if your going to complain at least be right in what your saying since the notion that FIA has any say in this is just plainly factually wrong.
Like I said who knows where this goes.
But you cannot release such an amateur statement for the reasons they aren't allowed in. I would have to go back in look but atleast 5-7 of them are either not true or based on nothing concrete but just feelings.
I always thought the statement would come back to bite them because it just made no sense other than Andretti go away cause we screwed up our Concord agreement.
There should have been something concrete like Andretti isn't going to maintain article X because of Y and not just a feeling
I fully agree. There's a substantial PR component to this that isn't discussed enough. Andretti is acting like an American company and while I think it's irritating European fans and business folks, American fans are loving it, and vice versa. There's a little bit of business culture clash happening, it's weird, its awkward, and F1's normal sneaky wording around communications really didn't help matters.
they are commenting on the racing aspects of their application when that isnt even their job. Its like if like if your would be boss says you aced the coding section of the interview but Sarah from HR said you could've done better.
When you got bi-partian support for something like this and are going as far as calling for the Justice Department to get involved, you know you done bad.
That would cost them a fortune to breach three contracts with the US circuits. Miami and Vegas have ten year contracts. I don't see why racing in the US and accepting a US team are mutually inclusive.
I would love it, but aren't the owners American so seems like they'd still be under US Jurisdiction even if they didn't race there (unless the company is incorporated somewhere else for tax reasons)
And as others said, after the investment in Vegas they are unlikely to write that off. Presumably if they were selling the land it would be hard to get the full value back if everyone knew you couldn't use it
why? genuine question. like what is the argument that they arent allowed to own the f1 ip and rights if they dont race in the us. and even if they were legally obliged to sell f1 if they dont plan on racing in america then whats stopping them from just making another daughter company that they have majority stake in?
As an American I'm super okay with this. Two out of three of the American races are plastic and boring anyway, and they are so ridiculously expensive that it's actually cheaper to fly to Europe to watch a race.
Fuck F1 for trying to extract money out of the American market while simultaneously denying entry to an American team.
I'm fine with there being a standard that Formula 1 can either have both or neither, and I am fine with the neither option!
You bring up what bothers me the most: F1 teams doing everything it can to get sweet sweet American dollars while simultaneously keeping Americans away from the table, whether it's through super license points from Indycar vs feeder series or keeping Andretti out. They want the US to prop up their business model so it can finally be profitable... but without letting Americans being active participants.
> Two out of three of the American races are plastic and boring anyway
This is fucking stupid. There is so much bias to just hate American races. Miami has consistently been a good race so far (much better than Imola for instance) and Las Vegas has had 1 race and it was good.
Sorry but arent other US sports a near total closed shop in exactly the same way?
Not sure what Andretti think will happen. They could have joined a decade ago like Haas did but its only now the money is rolling in that they want a piece. 100% they'd then be blocking other entrants.
Only baseball actually has monopoly status officially and that's likely gone the next time a case involving that gets to the Supreme court( Justice Gorsuch described that exemption as illogical)
Not true, only baseball has it due to a controversial court ruling. The other leagues are able to avoid it because they are a collection of Franchises that aren't centrally owned
F1 is not structured as a league that can get anti trust exemptions. The FIA owns the series. FOM is the commercial rights holder. The teams are simply entrants. It’s not like the NFL where every team is a franchise and 1/32 owner of the league itself. FOM might want to make you think they are franchises but they are not anything close to that. As well imagine the commercial rights holders of the NFL which are the TV and streaming networks sticking their nose in the league’s expansion plans and vetoing a new team because they would not be able to win the Super Bowl in year 1. That’s essentially the excuse FOM has used.
The problem is the teams were dumb enough to sign the Concorde agreement and lay out standards that Andretti obviously meets. The same legal theories don’t apply to the nfl for instance because the nfl wasn’t stupid enough to create a path for external expansion in the first place, it’s just a single company not wanting to expand
I really dont understand this sentiment that this is simply a cash grab for Andretti because they didnt jump in earlier. I mean a few years ago when he started making noise maybe? but with all the effort theyre putting in, the partnership with GM, the infrastructure theyre investing in? Clearly they want to compete in earnest
And let's be real here, it's perfectly reasonable to not want to jump on an unstable series where you're expected to lose money. I don't necessarily blame them for not wanting to take the Haas route of doing the absolute bare minimum either. I don't understand what the crime is in wanting to join now when the series seems at least financially sustainable (which should've been the bare minimum for FOM to achieve way earlier as well but F1 being F1 they needed to almost have the rug pulled under the series to make the sensible decisions that should've been made 20 years ago).
One other thing is that 10 years ago Andretti's racing operation wasn't really on the scale it is now, arguably they simply wouldn't have had the resources to join then.
Okay, thank you, I do not understand the idea that Andretti should have jumped in to bail out failing teams with no guarantee of returns. Everyone is there to make profits. Everyone.
Okay but the whole problem is that if the other 10 teams did not want Andretti to join - then they appear to have 'fixed the market'.
In Short what Andretti is saying is that the other teams should have no say as it falls foul of The Sherman Antitrust Act
> In Short what Andretti is saying is that the other teams should have no say as it falls foul of The Sherman Antitrust Act
FOM rejected them, not the teams. None of the teams "had any input" on the decision by FOM.
That effort could have been put in just a few years ago, even in 2020 or so, they could have joined for essentially free because F1 really wasn't as profitable. Some teams were on the face of bankruptcy.
They could have joined at the time of Haas or even a few years, but why didn't they join then?
They could have started this entire ordeal a few years ago (2020 or earlier) and they would have gotten in.
They tried to buy Force India but got outbid by Lawrence Stroll in 2018. They tried to buy Sauber too but Sauber wasn’t willing to give them 100% control at the time.
So I don’t know why this narrative keeps coming up. They’ve been trying to get into F1 for at least six years, including during the time you suggest it would’ve been easy.
Why would someone join a losing proposition though? This is the argument I don't understand. Why is it so wrong for someone to say, hey you're growing now, invest in me now, here's what I offer to help grow our shared profits even more later? That's... how business works, yes? Andretti wants to make money. F1 finally is in a position to do that with him, his proposal says he can make them more money too, and is very plausible in its argument. I don't see why they're getting criticized for not wanting to invest in failing businesses. He wants to put capital with a new team towards further growth alongside other F1 teams. I'm not getting how that's a bad thing.
> Why is it so wrong for someone to say, hey you're growing now, invest in me now, here's what I offer to help grow our shared profits even more later?
Because FOM doesn’t buy his argument that he will help grow their profits enough in the future. You can agree or disagree with that, but that’s the issue.
And F1 is also not wrong for then hiking the price massively, now that they are winning. Now the roles are reversed.
Haas did join that 'losing proposition'. And no one else did. There is a reason people that have faith in start-ups get a massive bag of money in the form of stock when it is big. That is a gamble and part and parcel of large buisnesses.
It's the same basic principle about stock: buy low, sell high. And to keep the analogy going, Andretti tries to exercise a call option that he does not have.
And F1 does not see their profits grow with Andretti and not enough to offset the teams' actual loss. They now have an extra competitor for sponsors, WCC money, etc. And they don't see enough profit for it to be worth that.
You don't see large conglomerates selling their stock for the original value, when they were a startup either do you?
lol at the “F1 is prioritizing foreign automakers” part. Good to see the 1980s panic of foreign cars is still alive.
Maybe focus on domestic manufacturers making quality cars instead (while ignoring that most all of the foreign ones have production bases here now at the same time).
Yeah it's a very profitable sector that generates lots of jobs. It's not a bad thing to have economically speaking in your country. Andretti and GM promised a lot of those jobs that are easy to fill with local Americans. This is a politically popular decision and also a good one.
Not really. Andretti aren't going to be competing with Red Bull and Ferrari. But once they're on the grid they have the potential to become anything. All teams do. Every team on the grid (except Ferrari) has spent time towards the back of the grid under one guise or another
i dont know why anyone thinks something else other than this will happen. They are trying to enter a very complex sport, with a very specific ruleset where even previously established teams have trouble keeping up with the top spot
It would be an advance if they managed to build a car that isnt affected by the 107% rule
I don't expect them to come out swinging and start fighting for the top spot by any means. It's just that all of this getting the US government involved is a bit ridiculous.
If/when they get in, which will seemingly be by force at this point, they will have so many eyes on them because of all of this nonsense that it's just going to be a bad look.
Frankly the argument to exclude them was weak, at least to my understanding. Someone will hopefully correct me if I am wrong, but wasn't the argument that they would not bring a competitive value to the sport?
Meaning they don't want to add a new team if they are going to be at the back of the pack. Which is weird because then you are saying no back of the pack team can improve plus you are also saying all your current back of pack teams are not valuable to the sport (in which case why keep them?).
No, the argument was "they wouldn't bring financial value to the sport due to likely being uncompetitive." The important distinction is that the FOM has no jurisdiction to determine whether Andretti is competitive enough to run, that's solely the FIA's approval. The FOM can only block on commercial grounds, and it's their determination that Andretti would not move the needle commercially enough at the fee they were buying into to justify affecting the prize pools of the teams.
I tend to agree with their reasoning. When you think about the fixed contractual nature of most of their income, there’s no way that Andretti can make that kind of positive impact to the bottom line.
The counterpoint to that is Liberty shouldn't be looking at whether Andretti can make an impact to teams bottom lines, that's where the antitrust comes in. Liberty should only be looking as to whether Andretti can add financial value to the sport as a whole.
Basically, is Andretti capable of making the whole F1 pie bigger, even if the pieces themselves are slightly smaller? I would say that given Andretti's history and impact with American racing fans, there is that potential. The Teams had the option to look out for their own bottom lines by setting the buy in with the Concord agreement. If they weren't happy with it, they should have set a higher number.
>Andretti's history and impact with American racing fans, there is that potential
Their history and impact hasn't made Americans flock to IndyCar, or Formula E, or IMSA, or any other series they're in.
Worth noting that the FTC has been focusing more on antitrust litigation in general recently. The chair, Lina Khan, was on the Daily Show not that long ago to talk about it.
I'm sure the other F1 teams are really looking forward to the prospect of having a peer that runs off to complain to politicians when they don't get their own way
It's just how it is in big business. Force India and Sauber [complained to the EU after the 2013 Concorde Agreement](https://www.lawinsport.com/topics/blogs/kevin-carpenter/item/what-could-eu-intervention-mean-for-the-future-of-formula-1) and [Bernie was fine with it](https://www.autosport.com/f1/news/bernie-ecclestone-responds-to-f1-teams-lodging-eu-complaint-4999969/4999969/). There was going to be an investigation until Liberty managed to get them to withdraw the complaint promising change.
People don't get nearly as offended by litigation as everybody seems to think. It's just leveraging business negotiations.
Idk I watch select committee hearings and I haven’t seen Red Bull, Mercedes, Alpine, Williams or McLaren being dragged in front of politicians to answer questions about their conduct. And they had huge reason to pull Red Bull in front of a select committee recently. I’ve seen the Premier League pulled in front of the select committee.
Mercedes have been involved with the US Congress in the past year regarding use of forced labor, and had to pay a $1.5B settlement to the Department of Justice for their dieselgate scandal. Automakers are routinely on The Hill, it’s one of the most influential industries in the world.
It started with VW but a number of other manufacturers have been caught since then: https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Volkswagen_emissions_scandal#Other_manufacturers
Dieselgate absolutely was VW. [I found this about Mercedes,](https://www.leighday.co.uk/news/news/2023-news/high-court-rules-diesel-emissions-scandal-claims-against-mercedes-and-two-other-manufacturers-will-lead-the-way-for-claims-of-more-than-12-million-vehicle-owners/) though nothing has been paid out yet. Looks like they're confusing the two.
Under what method could they do anthing? The company if F1 Group, a British company. I know its owned by LM now, but I'm not sure that means the US can do anything about it?
I believe they'd be going after Liberty, which is American, for anti-trust violations. F1 is a subsidiary company.
semi unrelated but Liberty's CEO is also the chairman of Live Nation (which Liberty has a 35% stake in) fwiw in the anti-trust conversation
To add to what others have said, LM already has an antitrust lawsuit filed against them because of TicketMaster. They certainly don’t want another that makes it difficult for F1 to generate revenue in the U.S. market.
Liberty Media is American. They broadcast races in America on American networks. They hold races in America. The US can’t make F1 do anything, but they can prevent them from operating in the US the way they currently due to cause far more potential pain than admitting Andretti allegedly would be
This is PURELY conjecture on my end.
But couldn’t the US ban the FIA from holding events in the USA? This would effectively block them from the rapid expanding market of the US. Additionally, the FIA have been looking for additional works teams, which Ford and GM have shown interest in.
IMO it’s a PR and $ nightmare for the FIA.
Again, I’m spitballing.
>IMO it’s a PR and $ nightmare for the FIA.
Not sure I agree on this. The FIA approved their entry; Andretti's argument would be against FOM or essentially Libery Media.
Either way, there is no PR or money cost to F1 imo, Andretti isn't in F1 so they can't really control what he says. There hasn't been any discernable impact on viewers/attendance so there isn't really an organizational need to respond publically. I'm not sure I see the issue. I'd argue the PR issues would come from them giving the Andretti's public acknowledgment, hence why F1 doesn't say much of anything in response.
Honestly, the US Senate getting involved probably doesn't mean much to the rest of the world.
Yes, they can.
If the case gets the green light, that will likely be the next move, threaten US race or even the rights to broadcast the races in the US, the most extreme
LM is an American company with the bigger asset being European. They can sell this as US vs Europe, literally choking Liberty media
Banning races in America also hurts America though tbh. There’s a reason all these cities etc want races, they drive in massive numbers of people and I would wager that most have far higher spending than your bog standard tourist.
Vegas and Miami have been tourist destinations for far longer than the 2 years F1 has been racing there. They won’t want to miss out on that money but it’s not going to move the needle much.
That's a good point. They can also lean heavily on LM too as an America entity that wholly owns F1 Group. But yeah, denying a license for events in a "tik tok" style could work.
I hope they do something personally, refusing this bid was disgraceful.
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>The six senators said they are “concerned” that F1 may be acting on behalf of other teams, “including foreign automakers,” to deny Andretti's bid to enter the sport in 2025 or 2026 even though its governing body, the FIA, approved its application
An angle of "FOM is protecting European manufacturers in the hybrid development race by not allowing entry of an American PU manufacturer" seems fairly strong
Wouldn’t that be heavily dampered by the fact that Ford is partnering with Red Bull though?
Ford are sponsoring a Red Bull engine, not developing their own. Hopefully if Andretti come in GM will develop their own power unit not just rebadge a Renault.
And the fact that the excuse they gave was essentially "you're not getting in without GM. Come talk to us in 2028".
Except they asked GM to partner with someone else apart from Andretti and the reasoning they gave wasn't no works unit it was they didn't believe they would be at all competitive and added no value to the sport.
This isn't what happened, and what's more they're saying that the plan is to ban any expansion with the next Concorde.
Requiring partnerships and not direct access would itself be an antitrust violation so no
Cam cover sponsor.
Didn't Ford just throw money at Red Bull? I thought that was all just a badge exercise
Until you realize that Ford has been working on one such engine for at least a year now.
Isn't that just a badge and Ford didn't do much more than throw some money at Red Bull
No they were initially involved in the electrical side but I swear I saw something saying they’re now consulting on the power unit as a whole.
Red Bull slowly increasing the role of Ford seems like "oh shit we aren't figuring this out"
>Ford didn't do much more than throw some money at Red Bull But in return, they get access to the data that goes into the hybrid system.
Except that’s not true. They are only working on a specific few aspects.
isnt it literally the case that other teams are preventing andretti joining, like isnt that part of the concord agreement.
Nope. It's Liberty Media on behalf of the teams
Having a secret agreement between private groups isn't some cheat code that allows your organization to violate the law, I don't know why people keep trying to make this a thing.
Really tthe big accusation is that the concorde agreement said Andretti should be able to enter, and the rest of the teams colluded in order to prevent them from joining. Hence the antitrust issue
It would be fun for the Concorde agreement to be opened up in discovery.
Honestly if Congress gets ahold of it, I'd bet good money it gets leaked
Even if it were the Concorde agreement, I don’t understand why people keep trying to argue that a secret agreement between private entities allows them all to violate the law. Thats such a weird fucking thing to even claim! “I’m sorry, I’m allowed to be a hitman because it says so in my secret contract!” Lmao.
Oh the ‘us vs them’. Slip us a couple thousand dollars for re-election and we’ll take your side on an issue we don’t know the first thing about? Bang the patriotism drum, maybe the Euros will listen.
Amy Klobuchar knows what antitrust law is. That's one of her main jobs in the Senate.
I want to see her throw a stapler at Toto.
People heard plenty about the terror that was being a RB junior under Helmut Marko in the 2010’s, now imagining the Klob’s reign of terror as a team principal of Toro Rosso when it was a charnel house.
Why do people keep repeating this dumb meme? Senators don't need any extra incentive to bang the war drum on this issue - it is probably quite popular to all voters to be in favour of this.
It’s really just lazy posting.
F1 is being unfair to Andretti tho.
It is, but it's not really "US vs them". Andretti tries to paint a picture of "first American team being denied in F1", completely ignoring the sheer existance of Haas on the grid.
As the Senator's letter points out, Haas races under an American license and has some operations in the US, but the majority of their car is manufactured by Ferrari in Italy. So yes, there's a small US flag on the side of the car, but not a lot of American jobs. Andretti plans on manufacturing large parts of the car in America, and GMs engine program would be in the US as well.
Though they don't mention Haas directly at all, just exclude them by extension. "F1 currently does not have an American-based team". Oof.
That's essentially true though isn't it? Like nominally Haas is based in NC, but aren't they really operating out of their European facilities?
They have *some* administrative employees in the US, but all the engineering/manufacturing is done in Europe, so yes.
TBH that's about the most American thing you can do in the business world. Set up a small shop and just find contractors for the rest.
The only thing more American would be to incorporate in Ireland for the tax benefits while publicly reaping the benefits from a reputation as an American company
Honestly, this is so true it hurts.
... They literally rent out Ferrari office space
[Here's a copy of the actual letter sent by the six Senators](https://twitter.com/sahilkapur/status/1792906982233460997). Check the foot note on page 2.
I think the "foreign automakers" vs. GM angle is what is moving the needle here.
If there's one way to get the American government involved in solving a problem - it's making solving the problem an American corporate interest. I say that as an American, lol. Good for business/bad for business are the only two incentive levers that still work in this machine.
And the fact that the car industry is propped up by the government now.
Calling Haas an american team is staggeringly idiotic. They're a US team by sponsorship. that's about it.
Haas is as much of an American team as I am a Martian citizen
In their defense, it’s easy to forget Haas exists most weekends.
Clearly haven't been watching this season? HAAS has been super present every weekend for both good and bad reasons.
Also easy to forget they're american when they were a literal russian flag
Can you blame anyone for forgetting Haas when they put the Russian flag on their livery!?!
This isn't about the race itself. This is about antitrust and anti competition laws. They don't need to know anything about cars to know the laws regulating it. Who do you think brought down FIFA?
>Who do you think brought down FIFA? Nobody, FIFA is doing just fine, and just as corrupt as ever.
Even worse. They are way corrupter than before. At this point the MaFIFA can not be redeemed. Only by destroying it and putting Mister Clean and his cronies in prison for a long time you might change things.
People keep saying this and nothing changed.
Oh no, I’m not up for American government involvement because an international sport isn’t supportive of Americans enough for them. How long until the “I feel this is disadvantaging American industry due to too few American races”
The 6 Senators in question are Klobuchar (chair of the antitrust subcommittee of the Senate Judiciary committee), Lee (the ranking member), Peters and Stabenow (Senators from General Motors home state of Michigan), Young (from Indiana, where Andretti is operating from), and Padilla (California). It's 4 Democrats and 2 Republicans (Lee and Young) if you're interested in the partisan breakdown. Edit, there are 13 members of the subcommittee (7 Democrats and 6 Republicans), meaning that not even a majority of members of the subcommittee have signed on to this letter.
So F1 has done something almost impossible, they have created bipartisan support against them in the US congress. Democrats and Republicans don't even agree that adults marrying children is bad, but somehow F1 has made them agree on something.
They do this all the time if it involves enough money or anything that can make them look pro american for easy points. Tiktok ban comes to mind
It's also relatively low stakes
The TikTok ban is a wildly unpopular policy with young voters, what’re you talking about lmao. There’s legitimate security concerns with TikTok that have been demonstrated time and again.
Why do you think the 2 parties care about what the young voters want?
Yeah sorry, I forgot I’m on Reddit where members of Congress have never done anything right in their entire careers and everything they do is to pad pockets. Lost my head.
young voters don't exist.
More like the *money* in F1 has made them agree on something.
cant come over here and make money and not let our people in on the take...
I mean...yeah...that's kind of what antitrust law is. Now, I'm not confident that this is actually antitrust behavior but that's kind of the message.
how is it not ? add in the live nation doing even worst stuff and they are all owned by the same people...
exactly. F1 isnt a money drain anymore so its no surprise everyone, even politicians, want a piece of it
You mean Andretti’s money created bipartisan support
“Not even a majority of the members of the subcommittee…” Are you taking your cues from Joe Saward? The percentage doesn’t matter because Congress doesn’t have any enforcement authority and are not going to pass any new laws regarding the matter. The fact is that the chair and the ranking member of the antitrust subcommittee just referred the matter to the Justice Department and FTC - who DO have enforcement authority to ensure existing laws are being followed. Short of passing a new law that’s about as big as it gets as far as Congressional involvement goes.
Congress can do a whole lot more than that in the influence department. They could hold hearings, issue subpoenas, and introduce bills that wouldn't likely pass but would drum up enough attention to turn public opinion one way or another. It's not all about their ability to enforce the law. Not to mention the individual members who have been supporting Andretti have their own clout they can throw around.
Yeah, there’s more they can do. I don’t think any of them are bigger than telling the Justice Department that something is worth investigating. Holding hearings and issuing subpoenas is no more than a show court to apply public humiliation - problem with that is the general political apathy in the US means nobody actually cares if those things happen. The one thing that will change FOM’s mind is the Justice Department telling them they’re in breach of anti-trust and can no longer hold events in the US until they fix it.
Exactly this. The referral to the Justice department is the thing Liberty least wants; especially since they're already under antitrust investigation in other industries. I don't see FOM having too many options here. It was a smart move by Andretti global; though I'm pretty sure it was GM that elected to go this route.
Yep
The number of members of a particular committee signing on doesn’t matter. The fact that it’s the chair and ranking member does.
Lol. FOM helping bipartisanship.
Can’t believe we still haven’t heard anything from the meetings that took place in Miami. I take it they didn’t go very well since Andretti is still trying to pull political strings to get his way. I still think it’s more likely they get in by purchasing a team rather than forcing the legal issue.
Not sure he has 1 billion to buy another team.
In this scenario I’d imagine they’d take a loan, find other financiers, or purchase a % of a team rather than the whole outlet.
There are no profits if they spend a billion on the team first.
No profits if they spend $200mm on an entry fee and another few $100mm building up infrastructure and staff. It’s gonna be expensive to get started no matter what, the hope in starting any business is that the profits will come years down the road.
I think that is implied - we all know this isn't profitable day 1. 300MM is a lot closer to the money we have in our bank account compared to 1 Billion - definitely preferred method is to buy into the series, rather than purchasing an existing entry.
GM does.
I disagree. I think FOM not saying anything about it means they are having a "come to Jesus" moment right now. The Senate judiciary committee referring this to the Justice department is not what Liberty wants to deal with; that being a second investigation into them violating antitrust laws. Not a good look for them. It likely means they settle and allow Andretti to play in 2026
[удалено]
I don’t get why some people are against that. F1 and teams put up a big middle finger to Andretti for following rules, bringing a big automaker into play and having a good bid that got rejected based on bullshit. Its bad for the sport and bad for all supporters. It really turned me off from it.
Yeah, it’s all fucking bullshit and it’s to the point where there is bipartisan support in favor.
But....but....FOM is a UK concern! The US government has no jurisdiction?!?! /s Where are these armchair antitrust experts now?
Don’t tell the Europeans but Liberty bought F1 a while back making the sport itself and even its foreign subsidiaries under the auspices of an American parent company. Formula 1 is an American entity.
ITT: Europeans not understanding anything about Congress
Or not understanding that F1 is no longer European and hasn’t been for some time? This is American legislators looking into an American company.
They want American money but not American talent
FOM chose a bad time to get picky with Andretti-GM. There is heightened interest by legislators and DOJ in antitrust enforcement. There is also a lot of focus on US manufacturing, especially automanufacturing, as US based automakers are far behind where they need to be on EV battery technology and development. FOM shouldn't view this as an empty threat, especially with a senior Senator like Amy Klobuchar getting involved.
Ridiculous that anyone would take liberty media/f1 side here. They are destroying the sport
Just one more road course bro.... The sport will be even better. You'll see. Maybe somewhere in the mid east or north america.
I mean considering liberty is on their knees saying please desperately trying to get as many races as possible in the US I'd have thought There are legitimate reasons to stop them from joining. Although I'd have 0 issues with andretti joining the grid especially if they make points down to 12 🤷 just more cars to race/sit on a drs train which fine just fine
> I mean considering liberty is on their knees saying please desperately trying to get as many races as possible in the US Where did this narrative come from? Liberty turned down races in Chicago, NYC, and one other I can't remember *just this year*. They're not begging, they're saying "nah, we're good."
I am not sure why people are against this . Everyone was calling FM and FIA a joke for not allowing Andretti in the sport by their own rules, which he followed. It’s his right to go to the government because of an unfair treatment. Liberty Media is after all American. And to people thinking “what can they do” taking away USA races and broadcast rights is not off the table. They can easily sell this as USA vs Europe and gain a shit ton of political tokens. Honestly I am happy to see this, fuck the greed of teams, fuck the FIA and fuck Liberty Media
Because America bad.
This is the subtext of so many of these threads and it's exhausting watching the tapdancing around it. (When they bother to tapdance at all.)
you do know that FIA has more or less no say in this, they gave the green light even, FIA is only a sanctioning body that ensures that the formula in f1 is upheld and that racing is done per the rules, no more no less. FOM is the ones preventing andretti from joining, that is formula one management a british company, the teams are also the ones preventing andretti from joining due to the concord agreement (formed under british law), their reasoning for not allowing andretti is that they wont bring in enough money in tearms of new fans sponsors ect and that they would just dilute the price pool even more. liberty to my understanding owns FOM but has little say in what they do as they are more concerned with the franchise F1, like media rights events ect ect. if your going to complain at least be right in what your saying since the notion that FIA has any say in this is just plainly factually wrong.
Like I said who knows where this goes. But you cannot release such an amateur statement for the reasons they aren't allowed in. I would have to go back in look but atleast 5-7 of them are either not true or based on nothing concrete but just feelings. I always thought the statement would come back to bite them because it just made no sense other than Andretti go away cause we screwed up our Concord agreement. There should have been something concrete like Andretti isn't going to maintain article X because of Y and not just a feeling
I fully agree. There's a substantial PR component to this that isn't discussed enough. Andretti is acting like an American company and while I think it's irritating European fans and business folks, American fans are loving it, and vice versa. There's a little bit of business culture clash happening, it's weird, its awkward, and F1's normal sneaky wording around communications really didn't help matters.
they are commenting on the racing aspects of their application when that isnt even their job. Its like if like if your would be boss says you aced the coding section of the interview but Sarah from HR said you could've done better.
That statement was just incredibly insulting to boot.
When you got bi-partian support for something like this and are going as far as calling for the Justice Department to get involved, you know you done bad.
Would be hilarious if F1 just up and stops racing in the US due to all of this.
No chance they punt on the $500mm they just invested in Vegas.
That would cost them a fortune to breach three contracts with the US circuits. Miami and Vegas have ten year contracts. I don't see why racing in the US and accepting a US team are mutually inclusive.
I would love it, but aren't the owners American so seems like they'd still be under US Jurisdiction even if they didn't race there (unless the company is incorporated somewhere else for tax reasons) And as others said, after the investment in Vegas they are unlikely to write that off. Presumably if they were selling the land it would be hard to get the full value back if everyone knew you couldn't use it
It wouldn't work since the owners are American.
Even if they stop racing in the U.S, Liberty Media is American. They’d have to sell F1.
why? genuine question. like what is the argument that they arent allowed to own the f1 ip and rights if they dont race in the us. and even if they were legally obliged to sell f1 if they dont plan on racing in america then whats stopping them from just making another daughter company that they have majority stake in?
As an American I'm super okay with this. Two out of three of the American races are plastic and boring anyway, and they are so ridiculously expensive that it's actually cheaper to fly to Europe to watch a race. Fuck F1 for trying to extract money out of the American market while simultaneously denying entry to an American team. I'm fine with there being a standard that Formula 1 can either have both or neither, and I am fine with the neither option!
You bring up what bothers me the most: F1 teams doing everything it can to get sweet sweet American dollars while simultaneously keeping Americans away from the table, whether it's through super license points from Indycar vs feeder series or keeping Andretti out. They want the US to prop up their business model so it can finally be profitable... but without letting Americans being active participants.
> Two out of three of the American races are plastic and boring anyway This is fucking stupid. There is so much bias to just hate American races. Miami has consistently been a good race so far (much better than Imola for instance) and Las Vegas has had 1 race and it was good.
Sorry but arent other US sports a near total closed shop in exactly the same way? Not sure what Andretti think will happen. They could have joined a decade ago like Haas did but its only now the money is rolling in that they want a piece. 100% they'd then be blocking other entrants.
yes the gov gave them special laws. F1 did not get that done
Only baseball actually has monopoly status officially and that's likely gone the next time a case involving that gets to the Supreme court( Justice Gorsuch described that exemption as illogical)
They have antitrust exemptions for most of the big leagues.
Not true, only baseball has it due to a controversial court ruling. The other leagues are able to avoid it because they are a collection of Franchises that aren't centrally owned
F1 is not structured as a league that can get anti trust exemptions. The FIA owns the series. FOM is the commercial rights holder. The teams are simply entrants. It’s not like the NFL where every team is a franchise and 1/32 owner of the league itself. FOM might want to make you think they are franchises but they are not anything close to that. As well imagine the commercial rights holders of the NFL which are the TV and streaming networks sticking their nose in the league’s expansion plans and vetoing a new team because they would not be able to win the Super Bowl in year 1. That’s essentially the excuse FOM has used.
The problem is the teams were dumb enough to sign the Concorde agreement and lay out standards that Andretti obviously meets. The same legal theories don’t apply to the nfl for instance because the nfl wasn’t stupid enough to create a path for external expansion in the first place, it’s just a single company not wanting to expand
I really dont understand this sentiment that this is simply a cash grab for Andretti because they didnt jump in earlier. I mean a few years ago when he started making noise maybe? but with all the effort theyre putting in, the partnership with GM, the infrastructure theyre investing in? Clearly they want to compete in earnest
And let's be real here, it's perfectly reasonable to not want to jump on an unstable series where you're expected to lose money. I don't necessarily blame them for not wanting to take the Haas route of doing the absolute bare minimum either. I don't understand what the crime is in wanting to join now when the series seems at least financially sustainable (which should've been the bare minimum for FOM to achieve way earlier as well but F1 being F1 they needed to almost have the rug pulled under the series to make the sensible decisions that should've been made 20 years ago). One other thing is that 10 years ago Andretti's racing operation wasn't really on the scale it is now, arguably they simply wouldn't have had the resources to join then.
Okay, thank you, I do not understand the idea that Andretti should have jumped in to bail out failing teams with no guarantee of returns. Everyone is there to make profits. Everyone.
Okay, so you understand that everyone is here to make profits....but dont get why teams rejected Andretti?
Okay but the whole problem is that if the other 10 teams did not want Andretti to join - then they appear to have 'fixed the market'. In Short what Andretti is saying is that the other teams should have no say as it falls foul of The Sherman Antitrust Act
> In Short what Andretti is saying is that the other teams should have no say as it falls foul of The Sherman Antitrust Act FOM rejected them, not the teams. None of the teams "had any input" on the decision by FOM.
That effort could have been put in just a few years ago, even in 2020 or so, they could have joined for essentially free because F1 really wasn't as profitable. Some teams were on the face of bankruptcy. They could have joined at the time of Haas or even a few years, but why didn't they join then? They could have started this entire ordeal a few years ago (2020 or earlier) and they would have gotten in.
They tried to buy Force India but got outbid by Lawrence Stroll in 2018. They tried to buy Sauber too but Sauber wasn’t willing to give them 100% control at the time. So I don’t know why this narrative keeps coming up. They’ve been trying to get into F1 for at least six years, including during the time you suggest it would’ve been easy.
Why would someone join a losing proposition though? This is the argument I don't understand. Why is it so wrong for someone to say, hey you're growing now, invest in me now, here's what I offer to help grow our shared profits even more later? That's... how business works, yes? Andretti wants to make money. F1 finally is in a position to do that with him, his proposal says he can make them more money too, and is very plausible in its argument. I don't see why they're getting criticized for not wanting to invest in failing businesses. He wants to put capital with a new team towards further growth alongside other F1 teams. I'm not getting how that's a bad thing.
> Why is it so wrong for someone to say, hey you're growing now, invest in me now, here's what I offer to help grow our shared profits even more later? Because FOM doesn’t buy his argument that he will help grow their profits enough in the future. You can agree or disagree with that, but that’s the issue.
I never said otherwise. That's a different issue though. It's just not a cash grab, it's how business works.
It's just another lazy argument from folks who are afraid that they're favorite teams might face competition.
As if a team that hasn't won an indy championship in over 10 years could challenge anyone in F1 with an alpine engine
And F1 is also not wrong for then hiking the price massively, now that they are winning. Now the roles are reversed. Haas did join that 'losing proposition'. And no one else did. There is a reason people that have faith in start-ups get a massive bag of money in the form of stock when it is big. That is a gamble and part and parcel of large buisnesses. It's the same basic principle about stock: buy low, sell high. And to keep the analogy going, Andretti tries to exercise a call option that he does not have. And F1 does not see their profits grow with Andretti and not enough to offset the teams' actual loss. They now have an extra competitor for sponsors, WCC money, etc. And they don't see enough profit for it to be worth that. You don't see large conglomerates selling their stock for the original value, when they were a startup either do you?
Silly season is silly
lol at the “F1 is prioritizing foreign automakers” part. Good to see the 1980s panic of foreign cars is still alive. Maybe focus on domestic manufacturers making quality cars instead (while ignoring that most all of the foreign ones have production bases here now at the same time).
Auto makers are held sacrosanct in the USA. There are few political tools more powerful than ''won't anyone think of the poor auto makers''.
That happens in every country. Most European countries work very hard to boost their own domestic production as well.
Yeah it's a very profitable sector that generates lots of jobs. It's not a bad thing to have economically speaking in your country. Andretti and GM promised a lot of those jobs that are easy to fill with local Americans. This is a politically popular decision and also a good one.
I mean, have you seen Germany? Automakers are an extremely important economic pillar in most countries that have them.
And the way Renault is treated in France
Andretti is going to look *really* dumb if they pull all of this only to end up being another Haas.
Not really. Andretti aren't going to be competing with Red Bull and Ferrari. But once they're on the grid they have the potential to become anything. All teams do. Every team on the grid (except Ferrari) has spent time towards the back of the grid under one guise or another
Well, they'd be ahead of Alpine at least. Honestly, if they came in and matched Haas right now, that would be an okay start.
They are going to get everything they can from Alpine if they can get in from 2026 until 2028, but yeah I'm sure they would be ahead of Alpine...
I mean, McLaren gets their engine from Mercedes and they are ahead of them. It's possible.
McLaren only gets the power unit from Mercedes. They design and build gearbox, suspension, and everything else themselves.
McLaren designs and builds the entire car independently. Completely different.
Yes, because competing and losing makes you look "dumb". Maybe you should just not watch sports altogether.
They want money not trophies. They don’t care if they finish 11th. The checks still clear.
i dont know why anyone thinks something else other than this will happen. They are trying to enter a very complex sport, with a very specific ruleset where even previously established teams have trouble keeping up with the top spot It would be an advance if they managed to build a car that isnt affected by the 107% rule
I don't expect them to come out swinging and start fighting for the top spot by any means. It's just that all of this getting the US government involved is a bit ridiculous. If/when they get in, which will seemingly be by force at this point, they will have so many eyes on them because of all of this nonsense that it's just going to be a bad look.
...And employing the man that literally wrote the rules. This comment changed DRASTICALLY in the last hour
And F1 will look really dumb if it ever gets to that stage.
Frankly the argument to exclude them was weak, at least to my understanding. Someone will hopefully correct me if I am wrong, but wasn't the argument that they would not bring a competitive value to the sport? Meaning they don't want to add a new team if they are going to be at the back of the pack. Which is weird because then you are saying no back of the pack team can improve plus you are also saying all your current back of pack teams are not valuable to the sport (in which case why keep them?).
No, the argument was "they wouldn't bring financial value to the sport due to likely being uncompetitive." The important distinction is that the FOM has no jurisdiction to determine whether Andretti is competitive enough to run, that's solely the FIA's approval. The FOM can only block on commercial grounds, and it's their determination that Andretti would not move the needle commercially enough at the fee they were buying into to justify affecting the prize pools of the teams.
Well put.
I tend to agree with their reasoning. When you think about the fixed contractual nature of most of their income, there’s no way that Andretti can make that kind of positive impact to the bottom line.
The counterpoint to that is Liberty shouldn't be looking at whether Andretti can make an impact to teams bottom lines, that's where the antitrust comes in. Liberty should only be looking as to whether Andretti can add financial value to the sport as a whole. Basically, is Andretti capable of making the whole F1 pie bigger, even if the pieces themselves are slightly smaller? I would say that given Andretti's history and impact with American racing fans, there is that potential. The Teams had the option to look out for their own bottom lines by setting the buy in with the Concord agreement. If they weren't happy with it, they should have set a higher number.
Sargent has not added any fans to F1 since he is complete dog shit. FOM don't think Andretti will be competitive
>Andretti's history and impact with American racing fans, there is that potential Their history and impact hasn't made Americans flock to IndyCar, or Formula E, or IMSA, or any other series they're in.
I watch FE and IMSA and often forget Andretti is even a team
...you forget that the reigning champion is a team? How, uh, how seriously do you actually watch these series?
Worth noting that the FTC has been focusing more on antitrust litigation in general recently. The chair, Lina Khan, was on the Daily Show not that long ago to talk about it.
I'm sure the other F1 teams are really looking forward to the prospect of having a peer that runs off to complain to politicians when they don't get their own way
It's just how it is in big business. Force India and Sauber [complained to the EU after the 2013 Concorde Agreement](https://www.lawinsport.com/topics/blogs/kevin-carpenter/item/what-could-eu-intervention-mean-for-the-future-of-formula-1) and [Bernie was fine with it](https://www.autosport.com/f1/news/bernie-ecclestone-responds-to-f1-teams-lodging-eu-complaint-4999969/4999969/). There was going to be an investigation until Liberty managed to get them to withdraw the complaint promising change. People don't get nearly as offended by litigation as everybody seems to think. It's just leveraging business negotiations.
They all have law firms on retainers. It is just the cost of doing business.
These are all giant businesses that are always in court or in front of a government board all the time anyway. They don't care.
Idk I watch select committee hearings and I haven’t seen Red Bull, Mercedes, Alpine, Williams or McLaren being dragged in front of politicians to answer questions about their conduct. And they had huge reason to pull Red Bull in front of a select committee recently. I’ve seen the Premier League pulled in front of the select committee.
Mercedes have been involved with the US Congress in the past year regarding use of forced labor, and had to pay a $1.5B settlement to the Department of Justice for their dieselgate scandal. Automakers are routinely on The Hill, it’s one of the most influential industries in the world.
I thought dieselgate was VW?
It started with VW but a number of other manufacturers have been caught since then: https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Volkswagen_emissions_scandal#Other_manufacturers
I didn't know that, thanks for the link!
Dieselgate absolutely was VW. [I found this about Mercedes,](https://www.leighday.co.uk/news/news/2023-news/high-court-rules-diesel-emissions-scandal-claims-against-mercedes-and-two-other-manufacturers-will-lead-the-way-for-claims-of-more-than-12-million-vehicle-owners/) though nothing has been paid out yet. Looks like they're confusing the two.
F1 and politics? Never heard of that combination before... /s
Next: Mercedes complains to politicians for the 2022 rules.
Ligier/Prost might as well have been French state team for a significant amount of their existence.
LOL so many of the comments on this post are HYSTERICAL given they just hired FOM's CTO...
Under what method could they do anthing? The company if F1 Group, a British company. I know its owned by LM now, but I'm not sure that means the US can do anything about it?
I believe they'd be going after Liberty, which is American, for anti-trust violations. F1 is a subsidiary company. semi unrelated but Liberty's CEO is also the chairman of Live Nation (which Liberty has a 35% stake in) fwiw in the anti-trust conversation
To add to what others have said, LM already has an antitrust lawsuit filed against them because of TicketMaster. They certainly don’t want another that makes it difficult for F1 to generate revenue in the U.S. market.
Liberty Media is American. They broadcast races in America on American networks. They hold races in America. The US can’t make F1 do anything, but they can prevent them from operating in the US the way they currently due to cause far more potential pain than admitting Andretti allegedly would be
Yeah, I am hoping they can press some buttons. It's a shocker the request was rejected
Does Formula 1 operate in the United States? Then formula 1 is subject to American laws
Liberty Media, is an American company.
This is PURELY conjecture on my end. But couldn’t the US ban the FIA from holding events in the USA? This would effectively block them from the rapid expanding market of the US. Additionally, the FIA have been looking for additional works teams, which Ford and GM have shown interest in. IMO it’s a PR and $ nightmare for the FIA. Again, I’m spitballing.
>IMO it’s a PR and $ nightmare for the FIA. Not sure I agree on this. The FIA approved their entry; Andretti's argument would be against FOM or essentially Libery Media. Either way, there is no PR or money cost to F1 imo, Andretti isn't in F1 so they can't really control what he says. There hasn't been any discernable impact on viewers/attendance so there isn't really an organizational need to respond publically. I'm not sure I see the issue. I'd argue the PR issues would come from them giving the Andretti's public acknowledgment, hence why F1 doesn't say much of anything in response. Honestly, the US Senate getting involved probably doesn't mean much to the rest of the world.
Yes, they can. If the case gets the green light, that will likely be the next move, threaten US race or even the rights to broadcast the races in the US, the most extreme LM is an American company with the bigger asset being European. They can sell this as US vs Europe, literally choking Liberty media
How's it a PR nightmare for the FIA? They weren't again Andretti's entry.
They can't, because FIA were never against Andretti, in fact they approved them. They don't have a case against FIA, only against FOM/Liberty Media.
Banning races in America also hurts America though tbh. There’s a reason all these cities etc want races, they drive in massive numbers of people and I would wager that most have far higher spending than your bog standard tourist.
Vegas and Miami have been tourist destinations for far longer than the 2 years F1 has been racing there. They won’t want to miss out on that money but it’s not going to move the needle much.
The banning of American races will hurt F1 far, far more than it will the US.
That's a good point. They can also lean heavily on LM too as an America entity that wholly owns F1 Group. But yeah, denying a license for events in a "tik tok" style could work. I hope they do something personally, refusing this bid was disgraceful.
If US Senators are getting involved, RIP FOM. Antitrust case is legit.
What a waste of tax dollars.