Andretti: 'Have brought in people from teams like Red Bull'

At Andretti, they are working incredibly hard for an F1 entry from 2026. No expense is being spared, but the crazy thing is: the US team is not even sure yet whether it will be admitted to the king class of motorsport. At Andretti, they are still convinced that things will work out and Nick Chester explains why it is not an option to lay off work until there is more clarity.

Nick Chester, who worked for Renault and Alpine for more than 20 years, has been Andretti's technical director since last April and is managing everything. The Brit did not have to think long when he received Marco Andretti's offer to step up.

“It’s a team that wants to do it properly and wants to win. You don’t want to be anywhere that doesn’t have that ethos. As I started talking before I joined, the resource behind it, the effort that was going to go behind it to make it win, just made it very, very attractive," Chester is quoted by The Athletic.

The workforce - which currently consists mainly of technical people - has now grown to more than 120 employees. “We’ve had people joining from Red Bull, Ferrari, Mercedes, McLaren. They all wanted a new challenge. It’s that real potential to shape departments, which is very attractive" Chester said, arguing that the appeal of Andretti as a new name is very strong.

F1 yet to tie the knot

The FIA gave their blessing to Andretti last November and hopes to see the Americans on the F1 grid in a few years' time. That is currently being held up by owner Liberty Media and the Formula 1 teams. If more racing teams are added, the prize money must also be split between more teams. The formations fear that the pie will remain the same, but the pieces smaller. Moreover, there are questions about Andretti's competitiveness. At the same time, Liberty keeps the F1 circus as exclusive as possible, also for financial reasons.

Andretti is quite opposed, but they won't be stopped. But what if everything later turns out to be in vain when a line is drawn through for good? They don't want to think that far at Andretti.

"As Mohammed (Ben Sulayem) has said a number of times, the benefits we will bring to the sport and the championship are so obvious," said Michael Andretti. “I can’t imagine anyone would want to try to stop us, and deprive racing fans of the opportunity to see a genuine American works team going head-to-head with the legendary names currently competing in F1.”