May 3 (GMM) Andretti, the hopeful Formula 1 team entrant, will struggle even to get teams up and running in the support categories Formula 3 and Formula 2.
As part of its push to convince F1 owner Liberty Media to green-light Andretti-Cadillac’s grand prix dream, Michael Andretti revealed that he would also commit to setting up F3 and F2 outfits.
But Bruno Michel, the CEO of both Formula 2 and Formula 3, plays down the likelihood that that happening.
“For Formula 3,” he told France’s Auto Hebdo, “I think it is completely out of the question to increase the number of cars.
“Thirty cars is already a lot and it’s a very good number. We’d struggle to find enough drivers for any more teams.
“Then, on the track, we also know that at some point, having too many cars is not very good for the races, and also for having a coherent grid,” Michel added.
And he says the same basic logic also applies to Formula 2.
“We had 26 cars in GP2, then we went down to 20, and then we went back up to 22,” the Frenchman explained. “I’m pretty happy with the numbers we have right now, for several reasons.
“The first thing is that it has to be viable for the teams, and finding 22 drivers with adequate budgets is never an easy task,” said Michel. “So I would say that at the moment, I am not very inclined to increase the number of teams.”
However, he insisted that he is not trying to lock Andretti out of F1’s feeder categories.
“They can try to make a deal with an existing team,” Michel said, “or they can apply – and if they do, there’s always the possibility that a team won’t continue or a team doesn’t make the cut.
“In that case, they would have a chance of coming in. The F2 process happened last year, and the next one will be in three years. For F3, it happens this year, so if they want to join, they will have to go through the selection process.”
He explained that he actually hasn’t had any talks on the matter with Andretti officials.
“I’ve read a few articles about Andretti saying that they want to join F2 and F3, but haven’t been in contact yet,” said Michel. “I understand that Andretti linked his possible programs to a program in Formula 1, which is also not yet decided at the moment.”