Formula One Management made its reluctance to expand the grid from 10 teams to 11 unequivocally clear last year.
The FIA, the governing body of motorsport, approved Andretti’s application in October 2023. But three months later F1’s commercial rights holder FOM turned up its nose and turned down Andretti. An expansion of F1’s 20-car grid “would not, in and of itself, provide value to the championship” it sniffed while closing the door.
Eventually, FOM dropped its obstruction and, last week, confirmed an 11th team would be allowed in. Exactly why it changed its position is a matter of some conjecture.
FOM made a song and dance about the team being rebranded by General Motors, but that looked like smoke and mirrors. Andretti brought Cadillac on board two months before FOM’s initial rebuff.
Was the real problem a clash of personalities between former Liberty Media CEO Greg Maffei and Andretti team founder Michael Andretti, both of whom moved on from their positions last year? Did pressure from the United States Congress, at a time when Liberty has other headaches with legislators, tip the balance?
Regardless, this was a total about-face from F1, and not the first on Liberty’s watch. And, like many of those which preceded it, it’s a change for the better.
See also: The bonus point for fastest lap, which F1 has canned for this season, six years after introducing it. At the time FOM declared awarding a point to the driver who set the fastest lap time in a race (provided they finished in the top 10) would achieve that hallowed goal to which all must be sacrificed: “Improve the show.”
Of course, it didn’t. As many pointed out before the rule’s introduction (strictly speaking, reintroduction), it was a triviality which added little besides occasional confusion.
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That in itself was not much to complain about. For the most part, the bonus point for fastest lap was easily overlooked. But then it became a bone of contention which pointed towards a deeper problem for which FOM doesn’t have a fix, and getting rid of it proved a sticking plaster solution.
The most objectionable aspect of the bonus point for fastest lap was not the rule itself but the manner in which FOM went from proclaiming it would be great and declaring it was enormously popular – a decidedly doubtful claim – to suddenly dropping it without a word of explanation for months.
Imposing the bonus point for fastest lap and ignoring the many reasonable objections which were voiced to it (which have now been vindicated) was arrogant. In blocking Andretti, and in particular by questioning their lack of name recognition, F1 showed a dismaying lack of respect for the 16th world champion’s family. It also demonstrated a failure to understand that F1’s appeal as a ‘show’ ultimately rests on it being regarded as a true competition, not a closed club.
These aren’t the only occasions FOM has given up on one of its innovations or policies, however reluctantly. Starting races 10 minutes past the hour was quietly dropped. Two experiments with pre-race driver introductions, the last of which was supposed to be the first of many, came and went.
Of course not all of the changes to F1 since Liberty Media arrived have been undesirable – far from it. They have introduced some worthwhile innovations which have broadened F1’s appeal, by using new channels such as Netflix, embracing digital media and creating its own live streaming service. Not to mention promoting women as competitors instead of treating them as mere furniture.
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Still, a few more U-turns would be welcome. The new rule forcing two tyre changes per driver at Monaco, introduced after F1 CEO Stefano Domenicali’s criticism of last year’s race at the principality, has all the hallmarks of a knee-jerk rule change which will produce unforeseen and undesirable consequences.
But that pales next to Liberty Media’s greatest folly: Sprint races. Or, as FOM insists on calling them, ‘sprints’, despite the fact that drivers, by their own admission, do little sprinting in them.
Even the competitors struggle to summon any enthusiasm for these forgettable sideshows arbitrarily inflicted on a handful of rounds. Drivers say they ‘don’t like them’, they ‘mean nothing’, call sprint pole positions ‘not proper’ triumphs and race victories ‘not real wins’.
F1 is deluding itself by pretending there will ever be great enthusiasm for a competition which the competitors obviously have such low regard for. Make this the next U-turn, please, FOM.
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