F1: Andretti team F1 car heads to the Wind Tunnel next week

–by Mark Cipolloni–

Michael Andretti says his building F1 operation will test a 2023-spec car in Toyota’s Cologne wind tunnel next week – (see interview below)

Andretti’s application to join the F1 grid was recently approved by the FIA, but its fate still faces uncertainty as F1’s commercial rights holder FOM.

There has been pushback from the 10 existing F1 teams, who worry about splitting the sponsor and prize money pool with an 11th team.

“They say we are slicing the pie, but I think the point is we hopefully bring in more than what we take away, and we really believe that. We think we are going to add to it and not take away from it.

“I think there is plenty to go around and, if can help improve the popularity of the US from where it is today, then I think there are a lot of companies that are not in the series right now that have already contacted us and are interested in it.

“Once we get the approval, then they want to talk to us, so I disagree with that.”

Andretti says (see interview below) the car will be in Toyota’s Cologne wind tunnel next week as he continues to build up his team. The hope is to be on the grid in 2025.

“At the moment we are still shooting for 2025,” Andretti told Sky Sports F1.

“Our car is actually going to be in the wind tunnel next week, so we have a car already built up in 2023 spec. We are flat out, and we are building a team, so at the moment it is ’25 but could be ’26, we’ll see.”

As for drivers, “Obviously, we talked a lot about Colton [Herta], and Colton is definitely at the top of our list, but we have the points’ problem, so we have to see how he does in IndyCar to hopefully get enough points to get a Superlicense,” said Andretti.

“We talked to a few others that do qualify. But the goal is to have at least one American in the car and then an experienced driver in the other car to help mentor him.”