Formula One boss Stefano Domenicali says interest in the sport is currently so high that teams are turning down “almost billions” from prospective buyers.
F1 is enjoying an unprecedented global boom and the demand to join the grid — either through buying an existing team or as a new entrant — is high.
In 2020 it was agreed under the terms of the F1 Concord Agreement that any new entrant would pay $200 million as an anti-dilution fee to join the grid, but Domenicali and the teams feel that figure is now undervalued as potential new entrants are willing to pay far more.
Speaking to F1’s Beyond the Grid podcast, Domenicali 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 [at the time] seemed 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.”
At the start of the year, racing’s governing body, the FIA, opened the application process for a new entry to join the F1 grid. F1 and its existing 10 teams would need to agree to any potential new entry and were lukewarm towards a proposed Andretti-Cadillac bid which made headlines in January.
When asked if he thinks F1 needs an 11th or 12th team, Domenicali said: “I don’t think so, that’s a personal opinion, I need to say that. 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.”
Domenicali clarified that he is still open to a new entry if the right bid is found: “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.”