“I don’t know. It’s a mystery to me in some ways, why they’re pushing back,” Andretti answered about the existing teams’ attitude towards his bid to enter F1. “They say we’re slicing the pie, but I think the point is, hopefully, we bring in more than we’re taking away, and we really believe that. If you look at the fan support on all of the surveys that have been done, we think that we’re going to add to it, not take away.”
Not that any surveys were needed. All you need to do is look at the audience attendance this past weekend. Roughly 440,000 people turned up for the second US Grand Prix, beaten only by the 444,631 people who turned up for the Australian Grand Prix. The upcoming Las Vegas Grand Prix will likely beat the latter figure.
Although the existing teams are standing in Andretti’s way, they’ll need to accept the inevitable at some point. F1 is making a lot of money in America, and refusing its entry would lead to a PR disaster. Andretti simply wants to race, and Caddy wants to promote the Lyriq.
Hopefully, everyone will come to their senses shortly, so we can all get a final answer.