To get the ball rolling, Andretti had already signed a preliminary contract with Renault years ago. But that expired in March 2023. And at the moment, the French are showing no great desire to resume negotiations on a continuation. Renault, alias Alpine, does not want to get caught in the crossfire of a power struggle between the FIA and FOM.
I thought the regulations required any additional teams to use Renault engines since they have no customers?
Or does Renault just get the first option to be the supplier?
If a team doesn’t have any contract with a PU supplier, they are assigned Pu with the least customers.
If Andretti enters in 2025 and don’t have a PU deal, Renault will be forced to supply them. If they enter in 2026 or later, there are three PUs with only one team: Renault (Alpine), Honda (Aston martin) and Audi (Sauber), so any of them could be forced to supply them.
I thought the regulations required any additional teams to use Renault engines since they have no customers?
Making a contract ahead of time was important to show Andretti has no yolo attitude about entering the competition.
Fair point. I suppose the lack of interest from Renault to renew the contract indicates they wouldn’t be required to supply Andretti.
I wonder who they would end up going with if they do enter as a constructor.
It could be that they know they will be required to anyway, so no point sticking their head above the parapet by making a new deal before they have to.
It could be that they know they will be required to anyway
The requirement will only be there for 2025. For 2026 there will be three engine suppliers with only one team, Alpine/Renault, Audi, and Honda but Honda is GM’s IndyCar competitor, so that one is ruled out.
Fair point
I suppose the lack of interest from Renault to renew the contract indicates they wouldn’t be required to supply Andretti.
“Renault, alias Alpine, does not want to get caught in the crossfire of a power struggle between the FIA and FOM.”
They’ll renew the deal once it’s clear if Andretti enters or not. They want a customer. Having two fewer cars hurt their reliability.
Something like that, I think the way it’s worded is actually the engine manufacturer with the least teams they supplied.
Ok, so Andretti made their bid supported by three arguments:
- They had arranged a PU deal with Renault. This technically is not necessary, since a team without PU supplier is automatically assigned one. But things go always smoother when the agreement is mutual instead of forced.
- The deal also included something similar to the Haas model, where Andretti would be able to buy many parts from Alpine. This is really important for Andretti, since all their racing experience is in spec or quasi-spec series.
- And the deal also included the rebranding of the Renault PU as Cadillac. Andretti wanted to sell this as bringing a new constructor to the sport.
But it turns out that all three arguments are no longer true, and haven’t been true for seven months. This is a huge question mark about the viability of the Andretti project.
And it is also a huge question mark on FIA’s bidding process, that selected Andretti just one week ago. Did Andretti try to hide the fact that the contract had expired? Did FIA fail in the due diligence? Or maybe FIA knew about the expiration, but didn’t care since they only care about their stupid dispute against FOM and the teams, and not the quality of the racing.
Friendly reminder that FIA gets their funding from the entrance fees paid by teams and drivers, so more teams equals more money for FIA, no matter how shitty those teams are. On the other hand, FOM and the teams get their money from tickets, F1TV subscriptions and sponsors, which rely (among other factors) on the popularity of the sport. So FOM and the teams have a vested interest in protecting the quality of the racing as a means to gain popularity. Both parties to this dispute are moved by greed, but only one is (accidentally) aligned with our interest as fans.
And the deal also included the rebranding of the Renault PU as Cadillac. Andretti wanted to sell this as bringing a new constructor to the sport.
That’s not true. They stated towards the press that GM will be involved in technical aspects without going into details but it’s not really that hard to guess with parts those are:
GM has the facilities such as including several wind tunnels, aerodynamicists, engineers, and so on. At the very least the GM facilities will be used, potentially some personell as well.
Alfa Romeo is not involved in Sauber’s technical aspects at all. GM’s involvement will definitively be more than that.
