James Vowles, the head of Williams, stated that his team 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 thoughts are very clear. Williams is against the addition of an eleventh team, and very strongly against, but I’ll explain the reasons behind that and why,” Vowles said on Andretti, speaking ahead of the weekend’s Qatar Grand Prix.
“My responsibility is to 900 employees, if you go to Companies House you can go and look up Williams, who have submitted it now, you can go and see the losses, 2021 to 2022. It is losses in the 10s of millions and more, compared to 2023 which you won’t see but I’ll guarantee you, it’s multiples above that.
“The reasons why is we’re investing in this sport to become better, we believe in 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 actually have I think a sustainable entity for once. Teams are working more and more together, we have closer racing, but it should be known it is not just us that are not financially stable, I’d say probably half the grid aren’t.
“I’d say the addition of an eleventh team is a sensible thing but only at the point where the tenth team on the grid is financially stable.
“We believe in what we’re doing to invest in what we’re doing, but we need to take care as a sport to look after that, and everyone says we’re in a good place – we are in some regards, but now those facts down the line actually it’s tens of millions, or hundreds of millions you’ll see shortly, being invested to make the sport better, it becomes therefore clear why we’re very careful about diluting what we’ve already got.
“More than happy to bring in new entities but the pie has to grow as a result of it, not shrink.”
Vowles claimed Williams may be willing to collaborating with an engine manufacturer like General Motors in an aggressive manner, but he later emphasized that no such negotiations have ever taken place.
“For clarity, [the team’s stance] is not against Andretti or GM, quite the opposite. I welcome GM with open arms, Williams welcomes GM with open arms and I hope to forge a relationship with them should things not work out.
“They are incredible entity who I think would make the sport better so it’s not we’re closed minded to people coming to the sport, but what we’re very careful on is protecting the sport we have right now.”
