Welcome to the weekend!

This past Wednesday the good folks at Aston Martin have announced that the legendary Valkyrie AMR Pro will be competing at the 24 Hours of Le Mans in 2025 😯

And if that wasn’t enough, Aston Martin have also announced that they’re saving manual transmissions in their upcoming Special Edition models. What this ultimately means is that Aston Martin is on a crash course straight into our hearts..

From road cars to race cars, it seems like Lawrence Stroll is making the right decision, every time (except for hiring his son to drive for the team and then partnering him with a two time world champion……. that……. that might have not been the best idea 😅)

Formula 1

Match point for the 2023 Driver’s Title

The Qatar GP is on this weekend and it looks like Max Verstappen might wrap up the Driver’s Title during the Sprint Race on Saturday. To our knowledge, this would be the first title secured under sprint conditions and as much as we/most of us complain about his dominance - Sergio’s in the same machine but can’t make the car do the same things.

He might be bold, he might be aggressive, he might be hated..

But he’s a brilliant talent and he’s about to become a three time World Champion.

Click here to catch up on the qualifying session for the 2023 Qatar GP.

Next race: Sprint Race on Saturday, October 7th @ 9am EST and the Grand Prix is on Sunday, October 8th @ 1pm EST (Qatar GP)

Paddock Auctions

Auctions now live!

This 1970 Chevelle has joined our upcoming auctions and features a 454 motor swap.

Auction starts: Friday, October 13th @ 7:30PM EST

Click to view 1970 Chevrolet Chevelle SS

This 2015 Jaguar F-Type S Coupe Supercharged V6 has a salvage title but has been on the road for a while since repairs with no issues. You chance to snag a great machine at a good price 💪

Auction starts: Friday, October 6th @ 7PM EST

Click to view 2015 Jaguar F-Type S Coupe Supercharged V6

This 2015 BMW ALPINA B6 Gran Coupe is coming soon from the good folks at P1AA. A stunning car that needs no introduction, for those who know..

Auction starts: Friday, October 6th @ 8PM EST

Click to view 2015 Alpina B6 Gran Coupe

In anticipation of the new partners, we’ve rescheduled the Cutlass Supreme T-Top. Rare spec, clean car.. Tell your friends!

Auction starts: Friday, October 13th @ 7PM EST

Click to view 1977 Oldsmobile Cutlass Supreme

Click To View All Auctions

Quick Bites

👾 Using sim racing to help develop junior rally drivers

👀 One way to get faster laps? Watch how the pros drive

🚨 An opportunity to support the next generation of Canadian motorsport talent

News Racers Can Use

Andretti is Going F1, or Are They?

Clearly the big news this week has been the FIA’s acceptance of Andretti Global’s bid to be the 11th Formula 1 team to join the grid and the first since Haas in 2016. Several teams bid with only Andretti emerging as the strongest after what the FIA describe as a rigorous analysis.

Following the FIA’s approval, the submission will now be passed to Formula One Management (FOM) for commercial discussions. This is where it gets interesting as the teams, the FOM and Liberty have indicated that they do not favor adding an 11th team. Why? Primarily because they feel that another team will dilute their revenue potential, potential that is growing after the years of losses that most of the Formula 1 teams have sustained.

The thing that concerns me the most is the lack of transparency from both the FIA, Liberty and FOM. While the FIA have indicated in vague terms what a bid must address, they have not explained why Andretti’s bid was accepted and the others were not. What specific criteria did the FIA use? Did every applicant get fair consideration? This comes from an FIA that stressed that they would be more open and transparent when Mohammed Ben Sulayem assumed the office of FIA President.

On the other side, FOM and Liberty have stated that any new team must be “adding value to the sport”? What does that mean? The closest we can get to an answer is from Toto Wolff. “And if an OEM or a multinational group joins F1 and can demonstrate that they are going to spend X amount of dollars in activating, in marketing; that’s obviously a totally different value proposition for all the other teams.” A bit nebulous at best.

Finally, there is the potential legal ramifications to consider. The FIA is based in Europe as are most of the teams and Liberty Media is an American public company. Will the EU force through Andretti’s bid as per their ruling in 2000 that forced the FIA to divest itself of F1’s commercial rights to ensure fair competition? Will Liberty fall afoul of the Sherman Antitrust Law promoting fair competition?

Much has been made of the “anti-dilution fee” that is currently set at $200M that any new team must pay to compensate the other teams for their loss of revenue and whether this allows Liberty to shut out new entrants, but I don’t think so. It is merely a financial package for the teams that is well within the rights of Liberty to charge and is like a franchise fee in other sports. The current teams feel that the fee is too low and want it tripled to reflect the current state of the F1 market which does make commercial sense.

The only way this fee could become a restraint of trade issue is if Andretti agrees to pay and Liberty and FOM still reject their bid, especially if they offer no clear and compelling reason to do so. At that point the fee can be possibly construed as restricting trade leaving Andretti potential grounds for legal action.

All this goes to say that we are at a murky point where the right hand is saying yes and the left hand is potentially saying no, with neither offering clear reasoning with respect to their decisions. There could be many years of potential legal squabbles that arise out of this all the while discouraging any potential new entrants to the sport. That result should be concerning to both the FIA and Liberty’s shareholders. The current market conditions will most probably not be as hot as they are now and there may come a time when F1 needs to attract new teams, but they will have scared them all away.

News Racers Can Use is written by Mark Boudreau from Motorsport Prospects