Andretti has evidence of how far ahead he is: 'Have a car for wind tunnel'

Andretti has not yet been officially admitted to Formula 1 as a team, but Michael Andretti revealed to Sky Sports that the car is already in the wind tunnel. All preparations are being made for an entry into the top class of motorsport.

Andretti has passed the first approval to become a Formula 1 team. The FIA has approved Andretti, but it is now up to the FOM and Liberty Media. They must now determine whether Andretti is also commercially interesting for the sport. The current teams do not like Andretti's arrival.

However, that does not stop Andretti from going all out for an entry into the sport. "At the moment, we're still shooting for 25. Our car is actually going to be in the wind tunnel next week, so we have the car already built up for [the 2023 regulations] so we're flat out, we're building a team. At the moment, it's 25, it could be 26, but we'll see," he said.

When Andretti want to join Formula 1

Many teams don't want Andretti because they have to split the money in F1 between more teams and, therefore, get less per team on balance. Andretti understands little of this position. "I don't know. The pushback is a mystery to me in some ways. They say we're slicing the pie, but I think the point is, hopefully, we bring in more than what we're taking away, and we really believe that. If you look at the fan support and all the surveys that have been done, we think that we're going to add to it, not take away."

With a car in the wind tunnel and the dream of being on the F1 grid as early as 2025, the question of which drivers would interest Andretti also comes to mind. In an analysis by GPblog, Sergio Perez already emerged as an ideal candidate. Andretti is looking closer to home for now.

"We talk a lot about Colton [Herta], and Colton is definitely at the top of our list, but obviously, we have the points problem, so we have to see how he does in the IndyCar Championship to hopefully get enough points to get a super license, but then we've talked to a few others as well that do qualify. The goal is to have at least one American in the car and then an experienced driver in the other car to help mentor that," he added.