LONDON: Mercedes chief Toto Wolff says the process for a new team to join Formula 1 should mirror the approach of US major sports leagues – NBA, the NFL, the NHL, for addition of new teams as Formula 1’s popularity has grown immensely in recent years.
“There is no mature sports league in the world, whether it’s a national football championship, or the Champions League, the NBA, the NFL, the NHL, where such situation is possible, where you say, ‘I’m setting up a team and I’m joining, thank you very much for making me part of the prize fund,'” Wolff said at the British Grand Prix.
As per Sky Sports, in February, the FIA, the sport’s governing body, launched an application process for new teams to seek to join Formula 1 in 2025, 2026 – when new engine regulations take effect – or 2027. This has led to new teams being interested in joining the sport. The FIA launched the application for new entrants earlier this year, with Andretti-Cadillac and Hitech GP being the known candidates.
“You have to give to qualify, you have to go through the ranks, you have to showcase the commitment to the championship that we’ve done over the many years,” said the Mercedes chief.
A deadline to enter passed in May, and the FIA and F1 are now assessing the submissions, with known candidates including Andretti and Hitech.
“If everybody in the NFL agrees – the teams that own the franchise there, so it’s different to us – agrees to have another entry, to let another team in because of the right reasons, the right ownership, etc, then that team is being admitted into the championship. And the same with most of the professional leagues in the US. We are a franchise, and this is how I would look at it,” he said.
Wolff and the majority of the leadership at F1’s 10 teams have repeatedly expressed grievances over a new team being able to join, and the fact that the current Concorde Agreement – the contract between F1, the FIA and the teams – leaves the teams out of the decision process.
Wolff, along with his fellow team principals – has maintained that any new entry must be “accretive” for F1, but the criteria they want satisfied appear to be almost impossible for an unestablished team to meet.
“If (an entry bid) is creative, then we must look at it,” Wolff added. “So far, what we’ve seen hasn’t convinced the teams – but we haven’t seen the applications and submissions that were made to the FIA and to Stefano, and they will judge whether that is positive for Formula 1 or not.
This standoff is down to F1 teams’ feeling that the financial terms for a new entry under the current Concorde Agreement don’t reflect the growth that the sport has seen since it was agreed in 2020.
“But in any case, from a team’s owner side, there are no leagues which just increased the entries, because that just dilutes the whole league. I think if it’s accretive then obviously not.” (ANI)