F1 teams rejecting offers ‘almost in the billions’, reveals CEO Domenicali

F1 has been booming in recent years, making the most of the Netflix documentary ‘Drive to Survive’ and its impact in countries such as America.

As a result, interest in F1 is greater than ever before.

F1 has been able to attract German car giant Audi, while Andretti - a legendary name in motorsport - want to create their own F1 team.

Speaking to the official F1 website, he said: “If you look what has happened in such a short term, talking about the value of one team, that was not many years ago – I would say two years ago when the new Concorde Agreement has been signed – when there was the talk about what is the value of a team that has to come in F1, there was a number put on the Concorde Agreement that was 200 million. Which seems unreachable, because there were teams in the past that were sold for £1.

“Now the market is offering almost billions to teams and they are refusing that. Can you imagine that? 

“So that gives you the perspective of what we are building as an ecosystem. We are building important structure, important dynamics of which the more everyone is growing, the better and the stronger is the business platform which we are all working in.”

The FIA has also opened invitations for new teams and organisations to submit an application to join the grid.

Despite doing so, Domenicali doesn’t see the need for an additional team or two.

“I don’t think so, that’s a personal opinion, I need to say that,” he added. “If you have a good show, 20 cars are more than enough.

“If you have two cars or two drivers fighting, the level of attention is mega. So if you have already two teams fighting, that means four cars, it’s just incredible. So can you imagine 20 cars, 10 teams are at the level where there is competition on track? It would be impressive.

“I would say let’s wait and see. My ‘no’ is not against someone wants to come in, I need to clarify that because otherwise it seems that I want to be protectionist, that is not the case. I want to see the right one and I need to also respect the ones that have invested in F1 in the last period, because we forget too quickly the respect.

“Now everyone wants to jump in the coach that is very fast. But we need to be prudent, we need to take the right decision, that’s what I’m saying.”