Michael Andretti has revealed that he still harbours plans to take his eponymous team to Formula 1.Andretti Autosport currently compete in IndyCar, Indy Lights, Formula E, and Global Rallycross, and recently inked a deal with Walkingshaw Racing and United Autosports for an assault on the Supercars championship in Australia.
Andretti has been rumoured to be interested in taking his outfit to F1 in the past, and now the championship winning team owner has responded to the speculation.
"Obviously [what] it comes down to [is], you’ve got to have a backer, I can’t afford to do it myself," Andretti told this writer at the Global Rallycross season finale in Los Angeles. "I’d have to have big sponsorship or [a] big backer backing me but I’m always looking at those opportunities."
Andretti admitted that his team has had F1 opportunities in the past that ultimately didn't come to fruition.
"There’s been a few deals that I came across that were starting to go somewhere and then they didn’t," he said, "but we’re always keeping our eyes open."
Andretti also shed some light on a long-running rumour that he was looking at starting a NASCAR operation, but hinted that it would only happen if he was to team up with a manufacturer.
"We’re still looking at all avenues from NASCAR to Formula 1 to sports cars, we’re always looking for opportunities and mostly the opportunities come when align yourself with a manufacturer," Andretti revealed.
Andretti also said his team was in discussions with manufacturers over a possible sports car programme. The team was previously expected to team up with Nissan for a Pirelli World Challenge effort, and while Andretti confirmed that discussions took place with the manufacturer, he said that right now a partnership wasn't immediately on the horizon.
"Right now there’s nothing there. I mean we’ve talked to them, talked to a lot of different manufacturers, but I don’t know if there’s really interest from Nissan right now," he said. "I think they’re still trying to figure out what they want to do, but we’re talking to a few others."
Image: Christopher Owens/IndyCar Media
No comments:
Post a Comment