Former McLaren driver and now the owner of various racing teams, Michael Andretti admits he has his “eyes open” on a future venture into Formula 1 though has nothing planned for now.
The son of 1978 F1 world champion Mario Andretti never reached the heights of his father, only contesting 13 races with the British team in 1993, but has gone on to success as a team owner with stakes in IndyCar, rallycross, Formula E and Supercars in Australia from 2018.
It was his Andretti Autosport team that McLaren and Fernando Alonso joined up with at the Indianapolis 500 earlier this year, though it would be teammate Takuma Sato who won the race with the Spaniard retiring with engine failure.
Interest in F1 is rising with new owners Liberty Media keen to introduce major changes to even up the playing field, that is one of the main reasons the American is monitoring the situation, but Andretti does concede he would need help to make an F1 entry a reality.
“Obviously it comes down to having a backer, as I can’t afford to do it myself,” he told DW Motorsport. “There’s been a few deals that started to go somewhere and then they didn’t but we’re always keeping our eyes open.”
Interest in the States is rising too, with the new American leadership keen to increase the appeal while NASCAR team owner Gene Haas started Haas F1 in 2016 becoming the first outfit from across the Atlantic since Shadow in 1980.
