Steiner says Andretti 'not helping his case to join F1'

Haas F1 Team principal Guenther Steiner says that Michael Andretti isn't helping his bid to join Formula 1 by accusing the sport of a 'snobbish' attitude toward teams bidding to make it onto the grid.

Andretti submitted the formal paperwork to the FIA back in February to have Andretti Global join the sport in 2024, but so far has received little public reaction from the sport's governing body.

Some teams have been reluctant to back Andretti's application as it would reduce their share of the prize money awarded at the end of of every season. Andretti would have to front up a one-off $200 million entry fee as reimbursement.

• Read also: No reason for 'disrespectful' Wolff to look down on us, complains Andretti

Andretti has been growing frustrated by the glacial pace of the application process, fearing it will leave him too little time to be ready for the intended debut in 2024.

And he's publicly complained about "very disrespectful" criticism from Toto Wolff, adding that the Andretti Autosports has been active in motorsport around the world for longer than Wolff and the Mercedes F1.

Andretti told a recent edition of GQ magazine that the sport was being "snobbish" and behaving like an exclusive European country club.

But Steiner - who heads F1's only current US-based team, owned by billionaire businessman Gene Haas - says that going on the offensive is unlikely to help Andretti's cause, and is likely to hurt it.

“I don’t know what he’s trying to achieve with these comments but that’s down to Michael,” Steiner said in Austria last week during an FIA press conference.

"Obviously, in my opinion, these comments, they're not constructive, or, you know, taking forward but you live by your choices."

Before applying to add a new team to the grid, Andretti had previously made 'millions' of approaches to Haas to buy the American squad, and also looked into the possibility of buying Sauber which operates the Alfa Romeo entry.

Although officially based in Kannopolis, North Carolina which is also home to the Stewart-Haas NASCAR team, Haas mainly operates out of its British base in Banbury since making its F1 debut in 2016.

Andretti lobbied for his bid to join F1 during the inaugural Miami GP in May but only McLaren and Alpine have so far publicly backed Andretti’s application, with Renault likely to be the new team's engine supplier.

Steiner didn't want to be drawn into his own views on the Andretti application, stating: It's not really our decision to give him a licence or not, you know. We have got an opinion but I don't think we can decide that one.

"We don't know what he presented," he pointed out. I shouldn't speak for other people [but] I don't know what he presented to FIA and FOM so I have no idea."

Speaking in the same press conference, Ferrari boss Mattia Binotto said he had "Not much to add" on the matter.

"I never met Michael myself so I don't know what it's about so are we supportive or not," he said. "I cannot comment because I never had a discussion, so I don't know what they're presenting.

"I don't know what they're looking for, and as Gunther said I think it's not down to us to decide whether the extra licence."

As for Wolff, the Mercedes boss was keeping his distance from the whole matter beyond endorsing the "Very good comments from Guenther".

"I spoke to [former F1 world champion] Mario [Andretti] twice on the phone and that was very nice," he added.

Andretti has argued that while F1 is currently enjoying a record spike in growth in the US thanks in part to the Netflix series Drive to Survive, such popularity can dwindle as quickly as it grew.

He says that having another American team on the grid, committed to developing American drivers for the Grand Prix stage, would be a way of consolidating and growing upon F1's current success in the US and around the world.

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