Formula 1 has protected Andretti through the decision to prevent its entry into the sport as early as 2025, according to former Haas Team Principal Guenther Steiner.
Despite earning approval from the FIA, it was announced on Wednesday that the eponymous squad’s proposal had been turned down by Formula One Management.
However, F1 has not closed the door entirely on Andretti and would be prepared to reconsider its application in 2028 provided General Motors builds its own power unit.
Andretti had been pressing ahead with plans in the background to join next year, but F1 expressed scepticism over the prospective side emerging competitive when there’ll be a regulation overhaul in 2026 to contend with.
Prior to his exit from Haas earlier this year, Steiner had been one of several incumbent team bosses concerned about the diluted prize pot that an 11th team would enforce.
The Italian has defended F1’s choice, citing that he can understand precisely why the commercial rights holder may have seen Andretti’s projected plans as too optimistic.
“I think they looked at it and thought it was too ambitious,” Steiner told ESPN.
He added: “I don’t have all the information. Maybe they looked at it and they said we want them but we want to make sure they are successful when they come, protect them from themselves.
“I think F1 is protecting all the teams, everyone involved in the sport, they didn’t close the door completely. They said ’28 is a new day, a new year, it’s quite a few years away, it’s not tomorrow but the door is open. Show us you can get prepared and be competitive by then and I think we’d welcome them.”
Steiner used the example of the relegation system implemented in football to highlight how there is not a similar model in F1 to impact teams that are underperforming.
“There’s not an ideal number [of teams]. If you’ve got 11 or 12 very competitive teams, that’s not bad, but also the commercial side of it needs to back it up,” he asserted.
“Just to have more teams, you need to share money with more people, which makes less for everybody. Then all of a sudden, even if you have 12 competitive teams, some will not end up with enough money and they will fall back. But then you have to keep these people around because they have the licence, because you cannot say you are not allowed.
“The thing with Formula One you do not have relegation… it’s not like football. If in football you don’t put the effort in and the financial means behind it, you are relegated and that’s your destiny. But in Formula One once you’re in you have the right to stay in… not forever, as nothing is forever, but for a long time. That is the difficult bit.”
Amid Andretti’s rejection, Haas remains the latest entrant to the F1 grid, having made its grand prix debut eight years ago in March.
The American outfit capitalised on its close technical ties with Ferrari to claim fifth in its third season but it has brought up the rear of the pack across three of the last five years.
However, Steiner believes it would be unfair to compare Andretti’s situation to Haas because of the changing landscape in F1, which has seen the introduction of a budget cap and a sliding scale on aero testing in order to promote much closer competition.
“When we came it was a completely different Formula One than it is now, to start off with,” he explained. “When we came in in 2016 I think it was a time when there were [other] backmarking teams, so it was expected there would be teams that were not so fast, so we had a lot less pressure than any other team that would come in now.
“The expectation is all the teams are competitive now, all the teams are stable now, when we came in there was a need for [new] teams, so it was a completely different scenario.
“But it is very difficult as a job to do it and it hasn’t become any easier, especially now a budget cap is in place, so if someone wants to come in and be competitive by out-spending everyone the first year or two, you cannot do that. You cannot do more than the other ones. The only thing you have not got is the experience the other people have got.
“So it is very, very difficult. I’m not saying it’s not doable but if you want to come in now you need to take your team and get yourself prepared and make sure when you get to Formula One you are as competitive as it is required by Formula One now.
“There is no weak team now, it’s very competitive. You cannot fail. FOM would not allow anyone to fail. So you need to make 100 per cent sure you can prove you will not fail.”
Hass doesn’t even build their own cars. It’s Frankenstein of parts. I think most teams are afraid that Andretti could start in the middle of the pack at the start.