According to recent reports, American racing outfit Andretti Autosport might be landing a majority stake in the Alfa Romeo F1 team, with negotiations said to be at a very advanced stage. Word has it, a final announcement could be made in a matter of weeks.
If the deal is to go through, Andretti would add yet another series to its portfolio, which includes IndyCar, Indy Lights, IMSA, Formula E, Supercars championship and Extreme E. As for why the outfit might want to become just the second U.S. team on the grid in F1, well, it probably has a lot to do with next year’s rule changes, which are expected to level the playing field between teams.
"I can say nothing because it’s not in my parameter,” said Alfa Romeo F1 team principal and CEO, Fred Vasseur. “These kind of discussions are not with me, it would be with the shareholders. We have so many rumors and so on that you have to ask the question to the shareholders of the company.”
Such a deal could result in Alfa Romeo either exiting the sport or undergoing a rebranding, where you’d end up with some type of Andretti Alfa Romeo team, powered by Ferrari. Speaking of which, the Scuderia is also the official engine supplier of Haas F1, meaning we could have two different US-owned teams utilizing the same powertrain – not bad, from a competitive standpoint.
According to Autosport, any deal for Andretti to take over Alfa Romeo could also result in IndyCar frontrunner Colton Herta potentially switching to Formula One in the long term, once having acquired enough F1 superlicense points. If Herta does move to F1, that could in turn open the door for Andretti’s Indy Lights champion, Kyle Kirkwood, to step up to the IndyCar team full time.
As you can see, there are a lot of “ifs, ands or buts” here, so we’ll just have to wait and see what happens.
"I can say nothing because it’s not in my parameter,” said Alfa Romeo F1 team principal and CEO, Fred Vasseur. “These kind of discussions are not with me, it would be with the shareholders. We have so many rumors and so on that you have to ask the question to the shareholders of the company.”
Such a deal could result in Alfa Romeo either exiting the sport or undergoing a rebranding, where you’d end up with some type of Andretti Alfa Romeo team, powered by Ferrari. Speaking of which, the Scuderia is also the official engine supplier of Haas F1, meaning we could have two different US-owned teams utilizing the same powertrain – not bad, from a competitive standpoint.
According to Autosport, any deal for Andretti to take over Alfa Romeo could also result in IndyCar frontrunner Colton Herta potentially switching to Formula One in the long term, once having acquired enough F1 superlicense points. If Herta does move to F1, that could in turn open the door for Andretti’s Indy Lights champion, Kyle Kirkwood, to step up to the IndyCar team full time.
As you can see, there are a lot of “ifs, ands or buts” here, so we’ll just have to wait and see what happens.