F1 Today – 06/01/2023
Andretti & General Motors launch bid to enter F1 in 2026
The American companies Andretti Global and General Motors have joined forces with intending to enter the sport in 2026. On Thursday a joint statement said that GM would be represented by its luxury Cadillac brand should its bid be successful.
Andretti Global chairman Michael Andretti said: “We are well suited to be a new team for F1 and can bring value to the series.” Andretti said he was “seeking to compete as soon as practical”. And he said he wanted “at least one American driver.”
The leading American driver in line for a seat is IndyCar driver Colton Herta, he currently races for Andretti in Indy Car, but was unable to qualify for a super licence points and secure a seat with Alpha Tauri.
Cadillac chairman Mark Reuss said: “We have a long, rich history in motorsports and engineering innovation, and we are thrilled with the prospect of pairing with Andretti Global to form an American F1 team that will help spur even more global interest in the series and the sport.
“Cadillac and F1 both have growing global appeal. Our brand has a motorsports pedigree that’s more than a century in the making, and we would be proud to have the opportunity to bring our distinct American innovation and design to F1.”
Andretti is one of the biggest brands in motorsport, racing in IndyCar, Formula E and Extreme E, Michael’s father Mario is the most successful American in F1. While Cadillac is part of General Motors the world’s biggest car manufacturer with brand like Ford, and Chevrolet.
But Andretti and Cadillac will have to go through a formal F1 process and there is understood to be no prospect of the team entering before 2026.
Mohammed Ben Sulayem, the president of F1’s governing body the FIA, earlier this week said he was planning to launch a formal process for expressions of interest for prospective new teams in F1.
Ben Sulayem said on Thursday in the wake of the Andretti/GM announcement: “I welcome the news of the Cadillac and Andretti partnership and the FIA looks forward to further discussions on the FIA F1 World Championship expressions of interest process.”
Commercial rights holders F1 would also have to approve the new entry.
Andretti had tried to buy the Sauber team, currently racing under the name Alfa Romeo before being taken over by Audi in 2026. But Michael Andretti has expressed frustration at F1’s apparent disinterest in his application.
F1’s contracts with the teams dictate that any new entrant has to pay a $200m fee to be split between the existing teams aimed at offsetting any prize money loss for the current competitors.
Alpine and McLaren are the only teams who have expressed positive views about a potential Andretti involvement. Others have previously questioned whether they would meet the competitive standard to be a benefit to the championship. The team will operate in a similar way to its US rival Haas, with a base in the US and Europe.
There was no detail in the announcement about the team’s plans for an engine, although they will initially buy one in.
Rossi hopes Gasly grows as “technical leader” with Alpine
Alpine CEO Laurent Rossi hopes that Pierre Gasly can use his experience as Alpha Tauri’s “technical leader” to take the team to “a new level.” The Frenchman joined the team partnering with fellow Frenchman and race winner Esteban Ocon following Fernando Alonso’s decision to join Aston Martin.
Gasly got his first taste of the car at the post-season Abu Dhabi test, and has now officially started work with the team ahead of the new campaign. Rossi expressed his hope that the Frenchman could put his experience of leading Alpha Tauri in recent years to help the team take another step towards the front-running teams.
Discussing what Gasly could bring to the team, Rossi told Motorsport.com, “Hopefully he’s going to bring what we need, which is to continue developing the car, because at the moment, we are still pretty much in the midfield and we need to take the car a notch up.”
“For that, you need drivers that are not only capable only to go fast and score points with the potential the car gives us, but also to take it to the next level. That means that you need to, as of Friday [practice], to be able to give feedback to the team and take the whole team in the right direction so the car improves.”
In his final years at Toro Rosso/Alpha Tauri, the team were keen that Gasly would be the team’s leader and spoke about building the team around him. Alpine appear to want Gasly to be the ‘technical leader,’ to help him and the team grow.
Gasly made his F1 debut with Alpha Tauri’s predecessor, Toro Rosso, towards the end of the 2017 season and has spent all but twelve races of his F1 career with the team. In that time, he scored only the second win in the team’s history at Monza in 2020, and helped deliver its most successful season to date in 2021 with a record number of points.
The Frenchman played a key role for his former team in developing Yuki Tsunoda. Alpine last year beat their main rival McLaren, finishing best of the rest behind the top three in the constructors.
Red Bull should fear Mercedes
Red Bulls motorsport advisor Helmut Marko says the team should fear Mercedes more that Ferrari as it goes into 2023. The Austrian team dominated the second half of last season, which allowed Max Verstappen to take his second title and the team their first constructors championship since 2014.
Verstappen and teammate Sergio Perez won ten of the final eleven races in 2022, with Red Bull’s only defeat in this period coming at the Sao Paulo Grand Prix when George Russell took victory for Mercedes. Russell’s win at Interlagos was Mercedes only win in 2022, as they struggled to understand to get to grips with the new regulations.
As the year went on and Mercedes understood its struggles with the W13 car better, both Russell and teammate Lewis Hamilton started to feature more towards the front of the pack. Although Mercedes’ late revival was not enough to beat Ferrari to second in the constructors’ championship, it was enough for Marko to label the team as Red Bull’s main threat heading into the new season.
Marko told Motorsport.com, “I would say that we should fear Mercedes more. Mainly because they have an advantage over Ferrari in terms of strategy and reliability.”
Last year Ferrari looked to be Red Bull’s biggest threat after winning two of the opening three races, but then a combination of reliability, strategy and driver error’s cost it in the championship.
Ferrari has made a number of changes over the winter, including the appointment of Frederic Vasseur as its new team principal, as it looks to end its title drought in 2023 amid the potential for a three-team fight.
Marko was sceptical that Red Bull’s success in 2022 could mark the start of a period of dominance, similar to that of Mercedes when the V6 hybrid power units were introduced in 2014. Adding, “Our situation is certainly not like that of Mercedes at the beginning of the hybrid era We don’t have an immense lead with the engine right now. So that is very different.”
“Mercedes had at least 50bhp margin over all the others back then. shouldn’t forget: 2022 has been the first year under this new set of regulations. Other teams have obviously seen what we have done with this year’s car.”
Piastri will challenge Norris, but no friction expected – McLaren
McLaren believes that Oscar Piastri will give Lando Norris a stern challenge, but has no fears that their rivalry will cause friction. After two seasons where McLaren has enjoyed a relaxed atmosphere between Norris and Daniel Ricciardo, the arrival of Piastri looks set to deliver a very different dynamic at the team.
However, the Australian is at a very different stage in his career compared to Ricciardo and will want to make a name for himself after being at the centre of a tug-of-war battle between McLaren and Alpine over his services for 2023. CEO Zak Brown has no doubt about Piastri’s capabilities but accepts Norris is a tough benchmark.
He told Motorsport.com, when speaking about Piastri’s prospects “I don’t have any expectations or set out this is what he needs to do by this date. But I think Lando is as fast as anyone in F1. I think in race-winning equipment, he’d be winning races, I think probably everyone would agree with that.
“So Oscar is going to have a teammate that’s one of the fastest drivers in the world. But I fully expect Oscar in time to challenge.” Piastri joining McLaren is likely to lead to a change in dynamic at McLaren, before his departure to Alfa Romeo Andreas Seidl said at the end of last year that he did not anticipate there being any risks of tensions.
Seidl said, “To be honest, I don’t think so. Obviously each driver is different: different personality, different character and that could end up in let’s say a different relationship also between the two guys.”
“But it doesn’t necessarily mean that one or the other type of relationship is a better or a worse one. In the end the way Lando is as a guy, as a character, as a person, as a driver, and the way we got to know Oscar so far, I don’t expect any issues.”
Brown has also praised the way that Piastri handled himself through the controversy of the battle between McLaren and Alpine over signing him for 2023 – especially in the face of criticism from his former boss Otmar Szafnauer.
Saying that Piastri had conducted himself well over the summer, saying he was mature throughout the process and described Szafnauer’s comments about the South African as “very unfair and not accurate.”
Brown described his new driver as a future star but accepted a year out may mean he needs to get back up to speed and a day and a half of testing will not help. But says Piastri is going to be competitive and push Norris.
McLaren sets launch date
McLaren has become the latest team to confirm the launch date for its 2023 car. The team will launch the MCL37 on Monday 13th February, the same day that Aston Martin’s challenger is launched.
The British team go into this season with a revised line up, with Oscar Piastri joining the team alongside Lando Norris. The Australian drove for the team at the Abu Dhabi test after being released from his Alpine deal, having been at the centre of a contractual saga over the summer.
Piastri will spend his rookie season alongside Norris, who goes into his fifth F1 campaign looking to build on an impressive year in 2022 that saw him finish seventh in the standings. Norris was the only driver outside of Ferrari, Red Bull and Mercedes to score a podium finish all season.
However, that wasn’t enough to allow the team to beat Alpine to fourth in the constructors.
McLaren will also enter the 2023 season with a new F1 team principal following the departure of Andreas Seidl in December.
Seidl has joined the Sauber Group, where he will serve as the CEO following Frederic Vasseur’s move to Ferrari. Seidl’s position has been filled by McLaren’s former racing director, Andrea Stella, who steps up as team principal ahead of the new campaign.