Andretti’s teams race in IndyCar, Formula E and Extreme E. They have run / operated teams on behalf of manufacturers in commercial arrangements before. (ie BMW in Formula E)
Team budget caps and a more sustainable arrangement with the F1 owners seems to have made F1 team ownership once more a good time to buy. Of course this also seems a good time from an American angle given the Liberty ownership and their seeming pushing more US involvement and events for the future will only boost F1 awareness and following in the US..
Linking in with McLaren was an early rumour (he already has arrangement and co-ownership deals with Zak Brown - Walkinshaw Andretti United in Aussie Supercars) but given McLaren is tied up by the Bahraini Govt pretty much that is not going to happen. The Haas name came up, as did Williams last year when their sale was mooted. They were all dead ends, but the rumours of Andretti and F1 in the same sentence continued.
All sorts of names were being plucked from various minds but it seems now that the team formerly known as Sauber is the hot tip....
Andretti tipped to take majority stake in Sauber’s F1 team
This makes sense as the team has been owned by an investment company (Swedish investment firm Longbow Finance) for the past few years.... we all know that the Alfa Romeo naming of the team is purely a commercial (ie sponsorship) arrangement with zero shareholding by Alfa.
There seems to be a lot of folk involved to be declining to comment which makes me think there is something in it. They are just asking the wrong people the questions..... Vasseur might be Team principal but he has zero ownership or shareholding of the team. He is not the guy to ask. No one in the team is.... they are just the owners "gofers".
On the other hand an Andretti 'Spokesperson' said. it has been on the cards (a move into F1 ownership) for some time, nd if the right opportunity ame along they would jump at it. Is this the right opportunity? That is the $64 million question .....
The numbers mentioned in the following article look high to me but if. they are fact then I can see an investment company always keen to move an asset on at the right money, would bite a potential purchasers arm off. They certainly paid an awful lot less for it.
This article seems to be on the money I reckon. Interesting times ahead for the rumour mill.
https://www.racefans.net/2021/10/08/and ... s-f1-team/CART Indycar champion and former Formula 1 driver Michael Andretti is understood to be pursuing a takeover of Sauber, which runs Alfa Romeo’s team.
It has been learned Andretti is closing on a deal to buy 80% of shares in Islero Investments at a price of €350 million (£296.86m), putting it in control of the Sauber Motorsport and Sauber Engineering divisions.
Andretti formed the Andretti Acquisition Corporation in March with a target of raising at least $250 million (£183.49m) through an initial public offering. However a spokesperson for the acquisition corporation told RaceFans it is not involved.
The Andretti operation already includes a successful IndyCar team, which won the Indianapolis 500 on three out of four occasions between 2014 and 2017, and recently hired ex-F1 driver Romain Grosjean. They also have a Formula E team, which until this year was linked to BMW, and entered the inaugural season of Extreme E this year.
Andretti’s interest in Sauber has been long rumoured. The F1 team was purchased by Swedish investment firm Longbow Finance in 2016. Under the Alfa Romeo brand it has scaled up in recent seasons, doubling its F1 workforce to over 500 employees, and hired Valtteri Bottas to join it from Mercedes next year. The team is yet to announce its second driver for 2022.
Although Alfa Romeo has fallen to ninth out of 10 teams in the championship this year, it has reduced its deficit to the front runners since its 2016 takeover. Having languished 4.3% off the pace on average in 2017 it has cut that deficit to 1.5% this year.
An Andretti spokesperson declined to confirm the company was making a move to buy Sauber.
“As is no secret, Formula 1 has been of interest to Michael and the team for some time,” they told RaceFans. “We’ve explored and come close on many options over the years, but we have nothing new to report.
“Our passion is racing, in all forms. Should a proper opportunity come along to take the Andretti name back to F1, we’d jump at it. But as of now, that opportunity has not fallen in our laps and our focus remains on our seven current disciplines of competition.”
An Alfa Romeo F1 team spokesperson declined to comment when approached.