It is no secret that the Andretti family has been pushing to get a team into Formula One.
Though their entry into F1 has been given a go-ahead from the FIA, the sport's governing body, the Andrettis have met resistance from existing Formula One teams and Liberty Media, the sport's commercial rights holder.
Andretti patriarch, Mario, isn't too fond of the way they are being treated.
According to Lydia Mee from F1Briefings on FanNation, the 1978 Formula One champion shared his thoughts about all the things that F1 and its teams have done to hurt Andretti Global's bid to join the grid.
"My heart bleeds when I see how Formula 1 behaves towards my son [Michael Andretti, Andretti Global's chairman and CEO]," Andretti said.
The Andrettis believe they have done everything the right way to gain entry into the sport, but every way they turn, there seems to be pushback.
Current F1 teams across the board have protested Andretti Global's entry, as has former F1 CEO Bernie Ecclestone, who made it clear that the Andrettis could have avoided all this trouble had they purchased a team years ago.
"Of course, the teams are fighting back," Ecclestone said of the push-back from the teams currently in the series while conveniently forgetting that in the past few years Michael Andretti had explored buying Sauber, Williams and Haas but none of those teams' owners were interested in selling.
The 10 teams currently in Formula One have even tried persuading General Motors, who is the proposed power unit manufacturer for the Andretti Global team, to abandon Andretti and join an already established team. Thankfully, GM has made it clear, that it is with Andretti to the end.
Mario was the last American to win an F1 race, and all the issues his family is facing certainly imply that an Andretti Formula One team isn't wanted, or perhaps F1 doesn't want an all-American F1-based team. Which doesn't make much sense, because there are now three F1 races in the United States, with a potential fourth race being considered; Gene Haas, who owns Haas F1, is American; Formula One's docuseries, "Drive to Survive," is wildly popular in the U.S.; and American manufacturer Ford is about to join Red Bull in 2026.
So, the real question is why not Andretti in F1?
