James Vowles, the head of Williams, stated that his organization is completely opposed to Andretti being the 11th team on the Formula One grid.
This week, the FIA, the organization that oversees racing, authorized Andretti’s proposal to join the grid in the future. However, Liberty Media, the owner of F1‘s commercial rights, must also agree for the application to be allowed.
Although there is no set date for when F1 will decide, an entry would probably be for 2026. According to sources, the process can take till the beginning of the following year.
Williams falls into the first category because of worries about revenues being diluted by another organization receiving a cut of F1’s prize money. F1 teams are at worst aggressively opposed or doubtful at best.
Despite having a distinguished heritage, Williams is still one of Formula One’s smaller teams and has struggled on the track over the previous ten years; its last five championship finishes have been 10, 10, 10, 8, and 10.
“My ideas are really distinct. Prior to this weekend’s Qatar Grand Prix, Vowles stated on Andretti, “Williams is vehemently opposed to the establishment of an eleventh team, but I’ll explain why that is.
If you go to Companies House and search up Williams, who has submitted it today, you can go and see the losses, from 2021 to 2022. My responsibility is to 900 employees. In comparison to 2023, which you won’t see but I’ll guarantee you, the losses are in the tens of millions and higher.
“The reasons why is we’re putting money into this sport to become better, we support the way in which the sport is going and the direction of travel.”
From £48.6 million in 2020 and £96.4 million in 2021, Williams reported revenues of £142.8 million in 2022.
Compared to £11.9 million in 2021 and £58.5 million in 2020, its loss after tax in 2022 was £17.9 million. The pandemic delayed and substantially cut short F1’s 2020 season.
It wasn’t until earlier this year that Andretti’s F1 offer, which involves a collaboration with Cadillac and General Motors, initially came to light.
The owner of the team hoping to enter, Michael Andretti, the son of 1978 world champion Michael, responded by calling the 10 F1 teams “greedy” in response.
Vowles argued that it is not about greed but rather ensuring that F1 is in a sound state before allowing new competitors.
We finally, I believe, have a sustainable entity. Teams are cooperating more and more, and the racing is becoming closer, but it should be noted that we are not the only teams on the grid who are struggling financially.
“I’d say adding an eleventh team to the grid is a wise move, but only if the tenth team on the grid has financial stability.
“We believe in what we’re doing and want to invest in what we’re doing, but we have to take care as a sport to safeguard that, and everyone says we’re in an excellent position – we are in some ways – but now that facts down the line truly it’s tens of millions, or hundreds of millions, as you’ll see shortly, that are being invested in making the sport better, it becomes clear why we’re extremely cautious about diluting what we’ve already got.”
“More than happy about bringing in new entities but the pie must expand as a result of it, not shrink.”
Perhaps slightly antagonistically, Vowles hinted that if Williams were to enter F1 without Andretti, the team would be open to cooperating with an engine manufacturer like General Motors; he later emphasized that no such negotiations had taken place.
“To be clear, [the team’s stance] is not anti-Andretti or GM; quite the contrary. I welcome GM with open arms, as does Williams, and I hope to establish a relationship with them if things do not work out.
“They are amazing entities who I think could make the sport better so it’s not we’re not open to people coming to the sport, but the thing we’re very careful on is safeguarding the sport we have right now.”