The newest twist within the ongoing saga relating to the possible Andretti-Cadillac Method 1 crew?
A United States Division of Justice antitrust investigation.
Greg Maffei, the CEO of Liberty Media — the corporate that owns F1 — confirmed that reality throughout a convention name Thursday.
“This morning, we introduced that there’s a DOJ investigation,” Greg Maffei mentioned throughout an investor name Thursday.
“We intend to completely cooperate with that investigation, together with any associated requests for info. Our willpower, F1 willpower, was in compliance with all relevant US antitrust legal guidelines, and we’ve detailed the rationale for our determination vis a vis Andretti in prior statements.”
Earlier this yr Method One Administration (FOM), the game’s business rights holders, rejected a bid by the proposed Andretti-Cadillac crew to develop into the eleventh crew on the F1 grid. That got here within the wake of the Fédération Internationale de l’Car (FIA), the game’s governing physique, approving the proposed Andretti-Cadillac bid and referring the matter to the FOM for additional negotiations.
Among the many causes given for the rejection of the bid by FOM was a priority that the proposed Andretti-Cadillac crew wouldn’t be “aggressive,” and that the proposed eleventh crew wouldn’t add worth to the game.
That rejection, which got here in January, started receiving pushback on Capitol Hill forward of this yr’s Miami Grand Prix. Mario Andretti paid a go to to Congressional leaders on the Wednesday forward of that race, joined by members of Congress who expressed their “issues with obvious anti-competitive actions that would stop two American firms, Andretti International and Normal Motors (GM), from producing and competing in Method 1” in a letter to Liberty Media.
The next week the Home Judiciary Committee joined the fray, requesting paperwork and interviews with members of Liberty Media relating to the rejection of the bid. Later that month a bipartisan group of senators requested through letter that the U.S. Division of Justice’s Antitrust Division examine the matter. In that letter, co-authored by Sen. Amy Klobuchar (D-MN), the chair of the Judiciary subcommittee on antitrust, and joined by the panel’s rating member Sen. Mike Lee(R-UT), the senators expressed their issues over the rejection of the Andretti-Cadillac bid.
“It’s potential that such a refusal to deal—particularly if orchestrated via a bunch boycott—might violate U.S. antitrust legal guidelines,” the senators wrote.
“Final yr, F1 hosted three races in America, in Miami, Las Vegas, and Austin, whereas no different nation hosted greater than a single race,” they added. “Clearly there’s a monetary incentive to including an American crew to F1’s roster, and there’s no purpose they need to be blocked except [Formula 1 management] is making an attempt to insulate its present companions from competitors.”
It might appear, from Maffei’s feedback on Thursday, that the DOJ certainly opened such an investigation.
