A few months ago Andretti Autosport announced their intent to join the FIA Junior Series F2 and F3. When asked about it F2 & F3 CEO Bruno Michel explained some of the hurdles Michael Andretti still has to clear.
The determined racing icon Michael Andretti is not giving up his fight to join Formula 1, or its adjacent series. While continuing his battle to with the FIA and FOM to join the F1 grid, Andretti announced interest in being in F2 and F3. It won’t be easy for the American because there’s a selection process. And they aren’t excluded from it.
How does it work?
Formula 2 and Formula 3 hold a selection process every 3 years. In F2, it happened at the end of 2023, so the next one will be in 2026. For F3 however it is 2024.
Bruno Michel, the CEO of F2 and F3, explained the situation in Formula 3:
I would say that for F3 I think it’s completely out of the question to increase the number of cars: 30 is already a lot and it’s a very good number. You always have to think that we need to find the proper number of drivers for the teams as well and the teams have to be able to find the drivers which is not always an easy situation. It’s still not easy figure to ride, and then after that on track, we know as well that having too many cars is not very good for the racing and to have a consistent rate form. So for F3, there will not be additional cars.
In F2, it’s different. They went up to 22 drivers, but in GP2, there used to be 26. Due to various factors the field then went down to 20 cars.
But the real question is: Andretti is welcome in the FIA system?
Everything depends on them
Firstly, let’s clarify it’s not really concrete at the moment. Michel said they haven’t been in contact yet with Andretti, although he expects it probably will happen. Everything depends on their strategy.
Thinking about the number of cars, budgets, and racing, the CEO is quite happy with the figures they have at the moment. At the media he said:
I’m not so inclined to increase the number of teams so they can try to do a deal with an existing team or they can apply and if they do that there’s always a possibility that one team will not continue or one team will not have done a proper job. In that case, they would have a chance to come in.
So there are possibilities for Andretti to be in F2 and/or F3 in the future. Even if they’re a good name, there won’t be any special case to get them onto the grid. These categories are an interesting business as well for team owners, but as Bruno said:
I have to be fair to the existing teams so it would have to go through the same process as everybody else because it would be completely uncharted to the extinct teams otherwise, even if Andretti is a good name.
So the next move is up to Andretti.
