Formula1 News: "We didn't ask Congress to send letter"

In an interview with Nasir Hameed of grandprix247 in Miami, Mario Andretti made it clear that he did not ask Congress to intervene with Liberty Media on their behalf to get their team approved to enter F1.

“First, I’d like to make something clear, I did not take the case to the Congress. It’s actually, Formula 1 attracted the attention of Congress when they exhibited last week in Washington, DC.”

The perception was that the Andretti’s took their case to Congress to trigger the letter to Liberty Media CEO and President Greg Maffei, which Mario repeated was not the case: “I want to make this clear that they’re the ones that attracted the attention of Congress.

“They asked me to come to Washington and said: We’d like to ask you some questions. They wonder if F1 is trying obviously, and very hard to become more prominent in America, why are they having such a difficult time approving an American team?

“I did not ask to go to Washington. I didn’t ask to speak to any of them. And anybody that thinks that is wrong. But when they asked me and invited me to go there and meet with them, obviously, I did. Why wouldn’t I?

“It was a general discussion and they know we’re somewhat in limbo as well and very obviously anxious to arrive at a proper conclusion here. And, and that’s it,” revealed Andretti.