Michael Andretti is trying to find a crack to enter F1 next season. The co-owner of Andretti Global made the headlines last year because of his repeated attempts at introducing his team into Formula 1 despite several roadblocks. Most recently, Formula One Management (FOM) rejected Andretti’s application for his team’s entry ahead of the 2024 F1 season. But that has not dampened the spirits of the American corporation with a 40,000 sq ft facility at Silverstone. In fact, they recently worked with some high-ranking Mercedes officials including a financial advisor, perhaps to help Andretti work his way around the cost cap in F1.

Michael Andretti’s company wants to have its own Formula 1 team while no other squad is ready to divide the F1 season’s total money with an 11th entrant. Because of this situation, ex-Haas Team Principal Guenther Steiner advised the American businessman to change his approach. Instead of forcing the entry of a new team into the tight-knit network of 10 that currently exist in F1, Steiner called for Andretti to buy an existing squad. However, that advice seems to have fallen on deaf ears as there is no sign that Michael Andretti has slowed down in his team’s preparation for an F1 debut that might never even happen.

The Andretti Global organization has clearly stated its goal to form a new Formula 1 team with all-American drivers. On the other hand, the F1 teams that are currently present on the grid have refused to leave any space for a new joiner. To resolve this impasse, Guenther Steiner said, “To get out of [this situation] it will be very difficult because when you go somewhere to upset or disagree with so many people, it’s difficult to make up for that.” The Italian even advised Michael Andretti to stop pursuing plans of forming a whole new team.

Not only is Andretti not pausing his steps to build an F1 team, but he is trying to expand it too. Only recently, the American motorsport mogul has hired a few Mercedes employees to shift to the Andretti base in Silverstone. Amongst them, one of the officials is Laura Sturland, who has a background in finance. She joined Mercedes in 2017 in the role of financial controller before getting promoted to group financial controller after five years. At the time of quitting Mercedes, she served as the team’s Financial Director.

Now, she holds the same position at Andretti-Cadillac, as per Formu1a, which might make you wonder if Andretti has appointed Sturland for her financial expertise. Ultimately, she can help his team with the cost cap that the FIA has imposed on all F1 squads in recent years.

What is the cost cap that the FIA had imposed in 2021?

Formula 1 is, evidently, one of the costliest sports around the world where the teams spend millions on their cars. However, in recent times, a stark difference has come up between the financial capabilities of the larger teams like Mercedes, Red Bull, and Ferrari and the lower teams like Haas and Williams. This difference in their expenditure limited the smaller teams in several aspects. They could not build cars to compete against those of the front-running teams. To solve this issue, the FIA introduced a cost cap to restrict the bigger teams from endlessly spending their resources on making their racecars.

In 2021, the FIA announced the cost cap which Red Bull had overstepped a bit. As a result, the Austrian team had to pay $7m as a fine. Currently, the level of expenditure for each Formula 1 team is set at $135m, and it will remain so for 2025 as well. Since Michael Andretti is eyeing the next season as the perfect time to introduce his own F1 team, he needs to know the ins and outs of the cost cap rule. Perhaps, this is the reason why he hired Sturland as the Financial Director of his team.

With her enormous experience managing Mercedes’ finances, Sturland can make sure Andretti-Cadillac sticks to the rules once the team debuts in F1. While Andretti is going around hiring officials from the top F1 teams, there is still no confirmation if his squad will make it to the king class of motorsports. But he appears to leave no stone unturned as he has also hired an IT Head, Chris Green along with Sturland.

What, do you think about the officials leaving existing F1 teams for one that lacks any confirmation of entering the sport? Let us know in the comments below.