Mario Andretti continues to express his dissatisfaction after Formula 1 refused Andretti Global a participation in the world championship.
According to Formula 1, Andretti’s participation would not add value to the world championship and that has gone down the wrong way with Mario Andretti. He made this clear again in a conversation with ‘AP’ last weekend in Long Beach.
“I was actually offended,” he admitted. “I don’t think we deserved that, to be honest.”
“It’s a big investment in the league and you would think they would be happy with that,” he continued. “Even the value of the league is worth more with eleven teams than with ten, so I don’t know. Tell us what’s really wrong.”
He was also disappointed that General Motors was not accepted as an engine partner for the team, while Formula 1 subsequently tried to sign the American car giant without Andretti.
“That’s an insulting statement,” Andretti said. “We’re the ones who worked it out, and GM said it over and over again, ‘Andretti or nothing’, and then F1 still tried.”
“There’s an undercurrent that I honestly don’t understand,” he admitted. “But if they want blood, well, I’m ready.”
Discussions with Formula One Management (FOM) will continue next weekend during the GP in Miami and the 1979 world champion hopes that they will be taken seriously this time.
“We’ve only had one meeting with them,” he said. “That’s a problem, we haven’t had enough. That’s why I’m very happy about our next meeting.”
“You know… let’s sit down. There have been some missed opportunities along the way, but we have to look forward, not back.”
“I remain hopeful because we will never stop working on this,” he added. “It has been made clear that our work is on track, and as you can see we are not just talking. We put bricks and mortar together. We have shown that with the team that already has a place in Silverstone.”
“We try to say, ‘We’ll do whatever you ask of us. We do everything there is to do. If you think of something, tell us’, but they haven’t told us yet, except with some excuses like ‘Oh we don’t want you to come in, we don’t want you to be embarrassed’.”
“But we don’t want to embarrass ourselves, and the fact is that General Motors has made it so clear that they are excited about this project. They have a long-term commitment there and I don’t know what else we can do.”