F1 News: Liberty Media CEO now has vendetta against Andretti
Apparently pissed off that the US Congress has begun asking questions about the rejection of the Andretti team’s application to enter F1, Greg Maffei (pictured), the CEO of Formula 1’s owner, Liberty Media, said he will do everything in his power to ensure that Michael Andretti’s team never enters Formula 1.
–by Mark Cipolloni–
Andretti, a former F1 world champion, described a confrontation he had with Maffei during the Miami GP weekend in an interview with Sahil Kapur of NBC News.
He said it occurred Saturday at the Palm Club at an invitation-only breakfast reception. Formula 1 CEO Stefano Domenicali asked Andretti about his recent visit to Washington, and Andretti told him he had been invited by lawmakers to speak outside the Capitol as they called on the sport to accept Andretti’s application to become F1’s 11th team.
“I was asked to go there. And just as I was trying to explain that to Stefano, Greg Maffei, Mr. Maffei, broke in the conversation and he said: ‘Mario, I want to tell you that I will do everything in my power to see that Michael never enters Formula 1,’” Andretti said.
It was a reference to Michael Andretti, Mario’s son, who is the chairman and CEO of Andretti Global and is leading its bid to enter F1. The tense words between the two powerful men came just days after Mario Andretti joined lawmakers outside the Capitol for a news conference, where the members of Congress accused F1 of engaging in anti-competitive practices by denying Andretti’s application.
Maffei walked away after that remark and hasn’t contacted him since, Andretti said.
“I could not believe that,” he said. “That one really floored me. … We’re talking about business. I didn’t know it was something so personal. That was really — oh, my goodness. I could not believe it. It was just like a bullet through my heart.”
Since that encounter, Congress has now escalated the matter to the Department of Justice (DOJ) to investigate whether Liberty Media and the existing ten F1 teams have colluded to keep Andretti out in Anti-Competitive practices.
Congress had asked Liberty Media to answer specific questions related to the Andretti rejection and to turn over all communication (emails, text messages, etc.) between Liberty Media and the 10 existing teams to see if they colluded.
Liberty Media was supposed to respond by Friday of the Miami GP weekend. It is possible Liberty Media did not respond to that request and that is why Congress asked the DOJ to investigate. I am not certain about this fact, but it is possible that is what occurred. Or Liberty Media did respond and Congress did not like what they saw.
The fact that the DOJ is now asking questions of Liberty Media and Maffei, must have made Maffei even more livid.
Should the DOJ, in their investigation, conclude that Liberty Media has acted in ways that violate Anti-Trust legislation, the consequences could be severe for Liberty Media.
Whether they did or not, Maffei and his lawyers are going to have to spend countless hours answering questions and defending their actions.
Back in January Formula One Management (FOM), the sport’s commercial rights holders found that the Andretti-Cadillac team would not be “competitive” and issued a statement with several key points:
“Our assessment process has established that the presence of an 11th team would not, on its own, provide value to the Championship. The most significant way in which a new entrant would bring value is by being competitive. We do not believe that the Applicant would be a competitive participant.
“The need for any new team to take a compulsory power unit supply, potentially over a period of several seasons, would be damaging to the prestige and standing of the Championship.
“While the Andretti name carries some recognition for F1 fans, our research indicates that F1 would bring value to the Andretti brand rather than the other way around.”
That decision has only seen the Andretti-Cadillac operation push ahead harder. The prospective team recently opened a facility in Silverstone, near Silverstone Circuit, the site of the British Grand Prix. And in perhaps their biggest move yet the team announced earlier this week that Pat Symonds, who has a wealth of experience in F1 and is coming off a seven-year stint as the Chief Technical Officer for F1, will join Andretti-Cadillac following a “gardening period.”
In essence, Andretti poached one of Maffei’s key employees. There must be steam coming out of Maffei’s ears about now. Hopefully, he does not pop a blood vessel.
As Andretti told NBC News, he believes the proposed Andretti-Cadillac bid has done everything right, and would bring “value” to F1. “We’re bringing something of value. It’s a big investment in the sport that we love or sport that’s our job and our passion,” he said to Kapur. “It’s a long-term commitment. We’ve done everything that needs to be accomplished, needs to be done to earn a spot in Formula 1. What else do you want us to do?”