1999 Swift 010 Cart Series Race Car, #6 Michael Andretti

Michael was one of my favorite drivers.  It's a darn shame and disappointing what F1 is doing and not allowing him to field a team.  

Ertl also made the same model without openings, I have the Ertl version in my collection. I do have a few Indy cars done by Action with opening engine cover and front shock cover. Both brands are nice models.

Posted by: @marty-johnson

Michael was one of my favorite drivers.  It's a darn shame and disappointing what F1 is doing and not allowing him to field a team.  

From what I saw in yesterday's Bahrain GP, it looks like Max will get his 4th drivers championship trophy this year. FIA has blamed Andretti for delay in responding to an email from them as one of the main reasons why they won't act on his application for entering F1 this year. I haven't read everything that's out there about this but I think that Red Bull made the biggest stink about Andretti joining F1.

@old-caddys I think you mean the FOM, the FIA already has backed Andretti, it is the FOM (Formula One Management Group) who is keeping Andretti out.

October 24, 2023

Motorsports wire:

The Associated Press released a column on Monday, writing that F1’s vendetta against Andretti seems far more personal than team heads would imply. Those opposed to Andretti’s entry have cited a diluted prize pool as the main reason to deny them entry, but a tidbit from the article seems to point otherwise.

"Andretti can make a case that keeping him out of F1 is indeed personal: Three different people with direct knowledge of the conversations confirmed to AP that F1 asked General Motors if it would partner with someone other than Andretti."

That certainly seems to point toward F1 having an Andretti problem and not a money problem. General Motors is set to pair with Andretti under the Cadillac umbrella for car design outside of the engine, and as of this moment, they haven’t taken up F1 on their supposed ask.

Posted by: @john3976

That certainly seems to point toward F1 having an Andretti problem and not a money problem. 

 

What's the issue with Michael Andretti?  Was it something he did or said during his very brief stint in the '90s?  The vast majority of people who populate the F1 paddock today weren't even around when Michael raced there.  Certainly, it can't be against Mario because he was roundly loved in F1 circles when he raced for Lotus.

I think the issue is two fold, first Mario Andretti would fly back and forth to the United States and did not set up a permanent residence in Europe, when Michael went to McLaren he did the same thing and that upset a lot of people in McLaren's team. When you consider the 1993 McLaren was not really that good of a car as even Senna commented how hard it was to set up that car, Michael was not set up for success, Michale did get a finish of 3rd place in one race so he had the ability. 

The second issue is Michael Andretti's base will be in America and those in Formula One do not like that. 

I will also refer to when Nigel Mansell was at McLaren the chassis they built was to small and Mansell could not even fit in the car so the first two races Mansell was not even in the car, by the time McLaren built a chassis wide enough for Nigel Mansell to fit two races had already been run. The McLaren chassis that year was not very good either as it suffered from severe under steer. The McLaren Mechanics did not like Mansell and I think did not try their best to make the car competitive for him, after two races Mansell left the team due to how uncompetitive the McLaren was.  

Now McLaren has had a relationship with Andretti Motorsport for their entries into the Indy 500 so McLaren has not been one of the teams fighting Andretti from getting into Formula One, Mercedes, RedBull and Ferrari along with some of the other teams have been the major roadblocks. 

@john3976 - I don't know if it was the F1 community that disliked Michael's traveling back to America during the week on a Concord and then back again for the race.  My understanding is the McLaren team wasn't thrilled with it because they felt it compromised their ability to work closely with their driver.  However, it would have had zero effect on the rest of the F1 community, so I don't see how that would have been a problem.  If anything, I would think the rest of the teams would applaud it because Michael's weekday absence would have given them an edge.  My best guess is the teams were against another entry into the F1 paddock because of the dilution of the race awards.  Splitting the earnings among ten teams instead of eleven is financially advantageous for all teams. 

Still, I would think that would have been a non-issue because three F1 races are currently scheduled events in the USA, with five total in North America.  The interest generated by an American team with the name Andretti on it would generate untold riches for all of F1!  It would seem to me that marketing advantage would supersede any other consideration.  However, apparently, I'm wrong about that.  Such is life in the F1 circus!  

The splitting the earnings is a red herring, all the top teams don't need the money to start with. Further Formula One has a long standing not part of our group mentality and yes they don't want the Andretti Team to be based in America. They already make it next to impossible for an American driver to get a super license. Personally I think Michael Andretti should tell F1 to stick it. 

@john3976 - I agree with you.  I don't think splitting earnings is the issue.  And especially so because the immeasurable revenue generated by having an American team with the name Andretti, with five North American races and three in the US, would greatly supersede any other consideration.  The attention it would bring to F1, and the resulting revenues would have to be enormous!  I'd have to add, Haas is an American company and the team is based in the USA.  Consequently, I'm not sure I can agree that having an American-based team is the real issue. 

This whole Andretti/F1 fiasco is just a huge mystery that, logically, makes no sense to me.  I just don't get it.  And I'm saddened as well because I was really thrilled about the prospect of Michael fielding an F1 team!  That would have been so exciting!  

Marty and John, lots of stuff to digest here. I really didn't follow F1 back when Mario and Michael were racing in it so I can't offer anything about those particular time periods. While I do agree that the big 3 (Red Bull, Mercedes, and Ferrari) and even some of the mid-field teams like McLaren and Aston Martin don't rely as much on the year end prize money as some of the other lower placed teams do, I thought the "cap" on spending was supposed to equal the playing field. After last weekends race it sure looks to me like that isn't happening. Lewis Hamilton is my favorite driver and while he was winning his 6 driver's championships with MB I did get a little tired of watching the LH parade each race weekend. Last year, and it looks like again this year, we'll watch the "Max" parade as he'll lead all the other cars around the track from the first to last lap. What really strikes me as odd is the fact that no one can come close to Max to even challenge him. If the two Red Bull cars are supposed to be engineered and built the same with two different drivers how does this happen. Sergio Perez is no slouch and is known for his ability to manage tires during a race. How does Max set the record for how much time he finishes the race before the 2nd place car when the cars are supposed to be basically the same. Oh well I'll have to wait and see what happens this season but it sure looks like a forgone conclusion who will be the 2024 F1 drivers champion.

@old-caddys—It's common practice for F1 teams to field a stronger car for their #1 driver. Some teams are pretty blatant about establishing a #1 and #2. On rare occasions, the cars and focus are equal. It will likely be that way next year when Lewis moves over to Ferrari to pair up with Charles LeClerc. Other clear examples were when Alain Prost and Aryton Senna were on the same team at McLaren.  Max Verstappan is clearly the #1 and Sergio Perez being #2.  It's that way because the team needs to work together as part of the race strategy.  During the race, the #2 has the responsibility of protecting the position of the #1 or acts as the sacrificial rabbit to force other teams to use up their tires.  That said, Red Bull is currently the superior team.  Based on how Max dominated the first race, it appears that 2024 will record another championship for him and Red Bull.

The budget cap has too many loop holes in it that favor the big teams, another issue is every team having to bring out a new car every year, that is a waste of money and results in lack of competition. Your smaller teams end up using a huge part of their budget to design a new car each year where if the rules were more stable the smaller teams could refine what they have and become better. 

Tyrrell was a perfect example of not needing to 1. build your own chassis 2. not having to build an entirely new car every year. Tyrrell used March chassis when they were winning their championships. This mentality that you have to build everything in house needs to go. Right now you can purchase some of the parts but you still have to design the car. In the case of Haas they do that through Dallara for the car, and they purchase suspension parts and the engine from Ferrari. But in order for Haas to do that each year they spend a large portion of their budget which most years is just under the budget cap but some years has been within 10 million dollars of the budget cap and they have even spent the full budget cap. 

This is where the loop holes in the budget cap work against the smaller teams, the big teams can use 100% of their budget cap on the car and the loop holes allow them to spend other money on things like logistics to each race, the smaller teams end up using money within the budget cap to pay for the logistics along with paying for the development of the car. 

This is what needs to be done if they want a true budget cap, set it at the 100 million but the money has to be deposited in an account that has to go through either the FIA or FOM, the teams have to use that money for the car, the team personnel and travel, make them really budget, it can be done because the smaller teams are doing it, in the Haas teams case they have done it on between 80 million to 90 million and even they have hit the 100 million limit before but they and other smaller teams have done it. 

That alone would improve the racing, people won't even notice 1 to 2 second a lap slower cars, count off in your head right now one one thousand two one thousand, that is two seconds and that is the difference between the front and the back in most cases. Take away the extra money the big teams get due to the loop holes and the series would improve. 

RedBull, Mercedes, Ferrari who also gets something like 100 million from the FIA or is it the FOM but they get like 100 million dollars just because they are Ferrari and have been in the series since the first race, talk about a built in advantage. How are the smaller teams supposed to compete with Ferrari just from that alone. 

Going back to the new car every year deal, Williams is another perfect example of why that is not needed, Go back to the 1991, 1992 seasons, Williams developed the FW14 in 1991 it ran a passive active suspension system along with a semi automatic gear box, reliability is what cost Williams in 1991, for 1992 they refined the FW14 and it became the FW14B with a refined active suspension system that the drivers had to adjust on the fly during the race the cars semi automatic transmission was also refined and reliable and the FW14B aeroxdyminics were refined but overall it was not an entirely new car. Williams did develop a new car the FW15 for 1992 but the FW14B was so fast and reliable that they did not use the FW15 in 1992. In 1993 Williams refined the active suspension even more and the driver no longer had to adjust it on the fly in the race as it was now all automated. The 1993 Williams was called the FW15C and it was an evolution of the FW14B. 

Many people think Williams invented the active suspension system but that is not true, Williams was using brakes from AP on their cars at the time and AP had developed active suspension for road cars but was not really getting any where with it, so they offered the technology to Williams and the rest is history. 

@john3976 - You're making some strong, reasonable arguments!