A long chess game which ended with the ‘victory’ of the Rausing family if you really need to elect a winner in what was a deleterious stalemate for the dreams of Michael Andretti, who aimed to purchase 80% of the Alfa Romeo Sauber to enter F1 . At the moment the Circus sees ten teams registered and two other ‘entries’ are open, or Liberty Media has already foreseen the possible widening of the starting grid up to 24 cars when new solid realities approach F1. The need to pay an entry fee of $ 200 million, however, is keeping potential ‘sharks’ at bay in pursuit of the visibility that F1 and few other sports platforms in the world can provide.
For this reason, taking over teams already registered in the championship or becoming majority shareholders can be the preferential path for those who want to set foot in F1. Andretti tried, but in the end the agreement with the Rausing family did not come. According to British journalist Joe Saward, the Swedish bosses who saved Sauber from bankruptcy in 2016 did not like the wait-and-see tactics chosen by Andretti and his consortium aimed at lowering the purchase price by 80% of the shares set at 350 million euros (with another 250 at the level of bank guarantees to secure the competitiveness and the future of the team for the next five years). The Rausing family – Saward writes – must have realized that it is not so bad to own an F1 team and that it is not the time to sell. At least not yet. On the other hand, Andretti did not want to fulfill the requests of the ownership of Alfa Romeo-Sauber, considering the request too exorbitant. In Andretti’s dreams Colton Herta would have participated in the first free practice session of the United States Grand Prix in place of Kimi Raikkonen.
Alfa Romeo Sauber, on the other hand, will still race with the current corporate structure in 2022, a great hope for all F1 team owners, who dream of seeing their cars competitive. The obstacle represented by 200 million to guarantee as an entry fee to ensure that the teams already present on the starting grid do not see their revenues reduced is the same reason why Audi and Porsche in view of 2026 are studying synergies with teams already currently engaged in F1 to provide them the engines that will be produced by the brands of the Volkswagen group.
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