Domenicali: "Process was followed" with F1 Andretti Cadillac rejection

The Andretti Cadillac bid was approved by the FIA last October, but then rejected in the second stage of the process by F1, which issued a statement explaining its position on 31 January.

The content of that statement was subsequently challenged by both Andretti and its partner General Motors.

However F1 did leave the door open for a works-backed entry in 2028, by which time Cadillac intends to have developed its own power unit.

That would entail the new team entering under the auspices of a new Concorde Agreement, with potentially different conditions to those currently in place.

The current Concorde includes a $200 million dilution fee - so-called because it is intended to compensate the current teams for having an 11th team take a share of the prize fund pie - which is split equally between the 10 current entrants.

Subsequently, with the series thriving and team values soaring the incumbent entrants have questioned the $200 million figure.

Making his first public statement on the Andretti Cadillac rejection in a call with Wall Street analysts, Domenicali made it clear that F1 had followed the correct protocols.

Domenicali also noted that the provisions for an 11th team will be part of the discussions over the next Concorde Agreement, which will come into force in 2026.

“For sure it's a point related to the Concorde Agreement,” said Domenicali when asked about future provisions for an 11th team.

“It's a point of a joint work that has to be done between the FIA and FOM in regard to the different kinds of evaluation that we need to do.

“So I think that with regard to what has happened [with Andretti Cadillac], I think that the process has been followed, and we presented the result in the right way.

“For the future it's a matter of discussion, of course, with the teams, with the right commercial and technical proposition that will be discussed accordingly, within this year."

Stefano Domenicali

Photo by: Erik Junius

Domenicali expects discussions over the next Concorde to start soon, suggesting that in general terms it will be similar to the current one.

"We expect to address the renewal of the Concorde Agreement with the teams very, very shortly,” he said.

“Our view that is basically shared with the teams is that basically the Concorde Agreement will need will not need any substantial changes this time around.

“So we're going to start very, very soon. We had priority to finalise before the end of season talking about regulations, and other stuff with regard to other things that need to be solved before.

"So now, we're getting close to the time where we're going to start this discussion. Very, very shortly, as I said."