The United States House Judiciary Committee Chairman has penned a letter to Liberty Media asking for documents related to Andretti’s referred entry into Formula 1.
Despite being granted approval from the FIA, the prospective American outfit failed to receive the vital green light from Formula One Management (FOM) last October.
Last week, 12 members of the US Congress wrote a letter addressed to Liberty President Greg Maffei expressing their concerns that antitrust laws had been violated.
Now, American television station NBC has obtained a letter from Republican Jim Jordan, who has written to Maffei and F1 CEO Stefano Domenicali seeking answers.
“The Committee on the Judiciary is responsible for examining the sufficiency of federal competition laws to protect against monopolies and other unfair restraints on trade.
“Sports leagues, like Formula 1, operate in a notable area of antitrust law in which some degree of collusion is necessary for the creation of the product.
“However, when a sports league deviates from its rules and practices in a manner that reduces competition and depresses consumer interest in the product,
the collusion may amount to anti-competitive conduct.”
Jordan stated that he wasn’t satisfied with the reasons noted for turning down Andretti, citing that several teams on the grid are not in a position to compete for wins.
“The excuses put forward for denying Andretti Cadillac’s entry appear to be pretextual, arbitrary, and unrelated to Andretti Cadillac’s suitability to compete in Formula 1.
“For example, Formula 1 alleged that a new team could only add value to Formula 1 by ‘competing for podiums and race wins.’
“However, the FIA had already analysed—and approved of—the technical capabilities of Andretti Cadilac to compete among current teams, and most current teams in Formula 1 do not meet Formula 1’s standard of regularly competing for ‘podiums and race wins’
“Formula 1 also faulted Andretti Cadillac for attempting to use an existing engine manufacturer because it could ‘be damaging to the prestige and standing of’ Formula 1. At the same time, however, Formula 1 stated that if Andretti Cadillac used a new engine manufactured by General Motors in the team’s first year, a new engine would create a challenge for the new team.
“Formula 1 cannot have it both ways. The truth, as FIA President Muhamed Ben Sulayem explained, is that the rejection of Andretti Cadillac is ‘all about money.'”
Jordan also agreed with the view from Congress that the argument an 11th team could harm the incumbent sides suggested that F1 is an “anti-competitive” product.
“Weak teams want to be protected from competition to the detriment of consumers and an additional team would compete for prize money and sponsorships,” he added.
“If Formula 1 must hinder competition and harm consumers to protect failing competitors, then the entire Formula 1 model may be broken and the entity cannot hide behind the necessity of a sports league to pursue anti-competitive conduct.
“Delaying Andretti Cadillac’s entry into Formula 1 for even one year will harm American consumers to benefit failing Formula 1 teams.”
As a follow-up on the Congress letter last week, Jordan has requested both information and documents from F1 to review the process behind the Andretti decision.
In addition, Jordan has also asked to receive the communication records that exist between F1 and the 10 current teams regarding prospective entries to the sport.
Alongside things related to the anti-dilution fees within the Concorde Agreement, Jordan has asked to be provided a response no later than three weeks on 21 May.
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