Haas F1 team boss Guenther Steiner sees “risk and no benefit” of an 11th team joining the Formula 1 grid, in other words, Andretti Global is still not welcome.
The only current American team on the F1 grid, Haas are backmarkers who nearly perished not long ago but have now been swept up in the wave of adoration that embraces the sport and the rivers of money that apparently seem to be flowing at the high-end of the sport; from a penniless outfit unable to update their 2022 car they now have no excuses, as the cash is flowing in the form of MoneyGram.
Despite confirming this influx of capital, Steiner does not see a place for an additional team, which is a clear snub towards Michael Andretti’s highly credible bid backed by the might of Cadillac, speaking to Sky Sports F1 the Austrian questioned the benefit of Team 11 for F1: “What upside is it bringing?
“There is just risk, no benefit,” he added, not elaborating on the ‘risk’ as such, before he explained: “Five years ago, you could get teams for nothing, you could pick it up. Nobody wanted them and they went out of business.
“Now, all of a sudden, everybody wants a team. But it’s a lot of people that want to come in and the 10 teams which are here are all financially stable, all well set up. It’s a very good environment at the moment, no one is struggling.”
Steiner: It’s not up to me to decide
“If you put an 11th team in and we get a little bit of a dip in the economy or something all of a sudden maybe people are maybe struggling to survive. Why take that risk if there is no upside? It’s not up to me to decide,” insisted the Haas team principal.
The reality is that there is no foreseeable risk for Andretti Global’s entry, quite the contrary, with the credentials and investment they have already put into the project, and will keep doing so until they get invited into the top flight, if it does not happen, then who will tick more boxes than their bid does?
Furthermore, F1 loses the honor of remaining the pinnacle of motorsport if teams like Haas and their boss Steiner have a say on whether Porsche or Toyota or Hyundai or Andretti Global (for that matter) are allowed onto the grid, instead, it is an exclusive club, self-styling itself as the tip of the motor racing spear.
For now, its the world versus eight of the current F1 teams (Alpine and McLaren have vested, albeit differing interests in the Andretti bid being successful) asn their allies, as there ios not a sensible pundit or F1 fan see that ten teams make the ideal field. Let us know what you think int he poll below.
Meanwhile back in the States, Andretti is convinced his F1 project is on course to be accepted, a decision that ultimately lies with the FIA, Michael said: “We check all the boxes. The only box we didn’t have checked when we were working on our entry was, we didn’t have an OEM behind us, but now we have GM and Cadillac behind us.
They are going to bring a lot to the party to help us get a race car on track. We are very bullish at this moment,” added Andretti.