Wolff And F1’s CEO Aren’t Backing Down Over New Team Stance

Posted on July 17, 2023 | by Dre Harrison We’ve been keeping track of the race to get on the 2025 F1 Grid and beyond, with four teams now with official bids made to get into the sport in as early as a year and a half’s time. And while the sport’s governing body the FIA are open to having up to 12 teams once again, F1’s CEO, Stefano Domenicalli doesn’t appear to be budging over his position. Last week Toto Wolff came out with another statement that felt like the sport was moving the goalposts on the requirements for a team to get in, citing “safety issues”. Toto said over the British Grand Prix weekend: “Our position was very clear – buy a team. There’s a lot of consequences when you look at qualifying sessions. I mean already now we are looking like on a go-kart track, we are tripping over each other. There is a safety concern. “We haven’t got the logistics of where to put an 11th team. Here in Silverstone we can accommodate the Hollywood people, but on other circuits we can’t.” In a chat with Autosport Stefano was keen to repeat his previous stance of an 11th team bringing significant value to the table, with the FIA and F1’s rights holder reportedly on the brink of deciding with (if any) of the four current bids get accepted. “It’s not the money, as we have said,” said Stefano. “And I don’t want to anticipate anything because there is a process and I think that I have respect the fact the FIA launched their process, and very soon we will arrive at the conclusion. As we always said, we need to make sure that the decision is right for the business. So that is another decision that will be taken in the next couple of months.” When asked if there were any positives about the Andretti/Cadillac bid in particular, Stefano said: “There are positives and negatives, that’s part of the evaluation that we’re doing. So I cannot spoil or anticipate anything. We are doing things very seriously and correctly. So as soon as we will be ready for that discussion we’re going to inform, as a discussion we’re going to take it with the FIA together.” But with the FIA clearly keen to move the process along, having skipped multiple informal deadlines, and a clear resistance from the sport itself to expand the paddock, it remains to be seen if any compromise will be taken at all. We shouldn’t be too far off finding off… Are you keen for an 11th F1 team? Sound off in the comments!