Rumor Mill : Haas to sell to Andretti ?

One interesting rumors suggests that Gene Haas is going to sell his Formula 1 operation to Michael Andretti having become frustrated with progress in 2019. There are no obvious signs that Haas has made a decision to continue or not. The team has just announced a deal with MindMaze, the global brain technology company specializing in neuro-inspired computing platforms, but this is not a big deal. 

The team had been hoping to land the Orlen deal with Robert Kubica, but that has gone to Alfa Romeo. Formula 1 has done a good job for Haas, raising the profile of his machine tool business around the world, but it is not clear whether Haas wants or needs to continue.

Selling the team on to Michael Andretti is a logical step in many respects, but there is one slight difference: Haas is a multi-billionaire and can afford to fund an F1 team on his own, Michael Andretti is not and cannot - and while Michael would love to be involved in F1 and wave the American flag, he needs someone to pay for such an adventure. There is a sense that Formula 1 is unfinished business for Michael, who had a rough time as a driver in F1 and would like to come back as a team owner and win.

It should be remembered that in the summer of 2018 Michael and his company president J-F Thormann appeared in the F1 paddock in Montreal and it was clear that it was not a social call. The two had a number of meetings with F1 people, involving Pieter Rossi, the father of Andretti IndyCar driver Alexander Rossi, who used to be a Formula 1 driver. The word was that Rossi might have access to some private equity money from Silicon Valley to fund such a deal. It is clear that F1 owners Liberty Media would love to have the Andretti name in F1 and a top level American driver. The focus at the time was a takeover of the troubled Force India which ultimately went to Lawrence Stroll later that summer and has since become Racing Point.

One of the things that stopped that deal happening was that it was impossible to know how much money would be needed because there was then no budget cap in place. That has now changed and from 2021 teams will need to restrain their spending, at least up to a point.

Andretti has no shortage of things to do.

The team currently runs five full-time cars in IndyCar with Rossi, Ryan Hunter-Reay, Marco Andretti, Zach Veach and Colton Herta. There have been rumours for some time that the team will run a sixth car at Indianapolis for Fernando Alonso. The team ran three cars in Indy Lights last year and is likely to do the same again in 2020, while it has also been running the successful BMW i Andretti Motorsport team in Formula E. 

There has also been a team in the now-defunct Americas Rallycross Championship, featuring Scott Speed and Tanner Foust, plus a McLaren 570S being run in the Pirelli GT4 America Sprint series for Jarett Andretti. And Michael is a shareholder in the Walkinshaw Andretti United team in the Supercars championship in Australia, where he is partnered by McLaren’s Zak Brown and Tom Walkinshaw’s son Ryan.

Source: JSBM

FLORSCH: WOMEN DRIVERS SERVE AS ADVERTISING OBJECT

Source: GMM 

German race driver Sophia Florsch thinks Formula 1 too often uses female drivers purely to attract attention and be seen to be doing the politically correct thing.

On Twitter, the 17-year-old hit out after Ferrari boss Mattia Binotto announced that the Italian F1 team’s driver ‘academy’ is looking for female drivers. She said women are too often seen as mere “marketing stuff”.

Following her remarks, it was announced that the female-only ‘W Series’ would support the United States and Mexican grands prix this year.

Florsch told Auto Bild: “There have to be people who believe in women as racing drivers rather than just attracting attention. There have been a few women in the past who were supported by F1 teams, but they just stood there to smile and wave at the camera.

“It would be important that the girl had the same opportunities and support as the boys, for example like Mick Schumacher, who is also in the academy, and not only serving as an advertising object.

“I don’t want to assume anything negative about Ferrari but in general the way teams worked with women didn’t really help them,” she added.

Florsch, who made global headlines in 2018 for her horror crash at Macau, is currently looking for a seat for 2020. But she said she is not interested in the W Series.

“Look at Jamie (Chadwick),” she said. “She now has another year in the W Series because she still doesn’t have enough money for Formula 3. So she loses two years in a racing series where the level is, unfortunately, lower than a series where the men also race.

“We need equal opportunities. It has always been my drive to be the best and that includes beating the men on the track. The chance that a woman with potential for higher categories will emerge in this way is very, very small,” she concluded, referring to the W Series and Ferrari academy initiatives.