[Vorsprung]

According to a report from Motorsport, the 10 current F1 teams are pushing to increase the entry fee for Andretti F1 from $200 million to $600 million.

Rivals pushing to triple Andretti F1 entry fee to $600m

Formula 1 teams are pushing for a tripling of the $200m anti-dilution fee that an 11th entrant such as Andretti will have to pay in order join the world championship.

www.motorsport.com

Sources suggest that the 10 current teams want the anti-dilution fee to be boosted to at least $600m, with one team principal telling Motorsport.com that it was the lowest figure that has been mentioned, and that it could go higher.

If agreed the new number could force Michael Andretti to reconsider his plans to enter with General Motors brand Cadillac, which are built around the current figure.

Andretti still has the option to buy an existing team, having previously been turned down by Sauber and others.

Intriguingly, the potential entry fee hike comes just as it has emerged that Red Bull’s bosses are considering the future of AlphaTauri, with options included putting it up for sale or retaining it and moving it to the UK.

Andretti is known to have enquired about buying the Italian outfit in the past, and those discussions could now restart.

Red Bull’s price is likely to be well above the potential $600m cost of a new entry, but Andretti would have a good starting point with the Faenza factory and the UK-based aerodynamic department – and would not be compensating its rivals.

The original $200m anti-dilution fee was agreed as part of the current Concorde Agreement, which was signed in August 2020, and which covers the 2021-’25 seasons.

It guarantees a one-off payment of $20m from any new entrant to each of the 10 existing teams.

It was intended to cancel out the potential loss of prize money for the current teams on the basis that a newcomer could have entered as early as 2022, and thus taken a share of the total prize fund for the last four seasons of the Concorde Agreement.

 

[Vorsprung]

It looks like Andretti might be hiring "key technical personnel" to beef up their bid to join F1.

https://twitter.com/i/web/status/1635192509445066753

A candidate Formula 1 team, believed to be Andretti, has begun to hire key technical personnel as they continue with their bid to join the grid.

Andretti's bid process to join F1 in 2026 is ongoing, with a formal notification of application due in April ahead of a final decision being made by the FIA in June

However, that has not stopped the candidate team from beginning to hire technical staff.

The candidate team has appointed Nick Chester as Technical Director - starting in March 2023 for a "Top Tier Motorsport Team" according to his LinkedIn page.

Chester has nearly 30 years of experience in Formula 1, starting with Arrows in the mid-1990s before moving to Renault, serving as Head of Vehicle Performance Group when Fernando Alonso won his two titles in 2005 and 2006.

John McQuilliam has been appointed as Chief Designer for the same "Top Tier Motorsport Team", having started out at Jordan as Chief Designer in 1991.

He was the Technical Director of Manor Grand Prix when that team went bust in early 2017, moving to Prodrive and becoming Director of Engineering in April 2019. The Head of Aerodynamics position has also been filled by Jon Tomlinson who worked with Chester at Renault/Lotus.

Tomlinson also had a spell as Head of Aero at Williams between 2006 and 2011 and has also spent time at Mercedes in roles across both the F1 and FE operations.