We need more engineers to sustain the sport and an American team can only benefit F1, believes FIA president

Unlike the vast majority of current F1 teams, FIA President Mohammed Ben Sulayem believes the entry of a new team will benefit the sport. According to him, it will help the sport with its sustainability.

Former American racing driver Micheal Andretti expressed interest in starting his own F1 team last year. But now he has enlisted the Cadillac car company and its parent company General Motors in his project.

Ben Sulayem believes the arrival of a brand new constructor is important for the sport in the long term. Without him, he says the sport is hard to sustain. He last supported Andretti’s entry in Saudi Arabia during the Dakar Rally.

“There are two sides to sustainability, the one about the environment and the one about the sport. If you want to sustain the sport, you have to open it up to other manufacturers,” Racingnews365 quoted the FIA president as saying.

“We can have up to 13 teams in Formula 1 and we should support a huge company like General Motors, one of the five biggest carmakers in the world, in entering. On the other hand, we have to accept Andretti’s team with them, but we are working hard on the process of accepting him. We will have to wait.

As President of the FIA, I have not said yes to them. We have opened up the process with them to get them familiar with it, but can they go through it successfully? Will they meet all the criteria? Will they be able to race in F1?” said Ben Sulayem.

Ben Sulayem sees another important advantage of Andretti joining as the country where the stable would be at home – the USA. Interest in Formula One is soaring in the United States and another American team on the grid could benefit the sport.

While there is already one U.S. team in F1, Haas is headquartered in North Carolina, Andretti wants his team to be an entirely American operation, unlike Haas.

The Andretti name, which carries a lot of weight in American, and indeed world motorsport, and the huge American brand that is Cadillac, would be joined under the plans by an American driver – Colton Herta.

Source:: Racingnews365, ESPN