DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. — Michael Andretti has turned his attention to other areas for his expanding motorsport program unless he can get Andretti Global onto the F1 grid (which seems like a long way around at this stage) .
First up is the Andretti Autosport debut on the Rolex 24 at Daytona this weekend.Ah Partnership with IMSA heavyweight team Wayne Taylor Racing Andretti will line up on the grid for the top GTP class of North America’s most prestigious sports car race, and will eventually seize the opportunity to compete in the 24 Hours of Le Mans.
“We all know what’s missing from our racing portfolio is IMSA sportscar racing,” Andretti said before Saturday’s 24-hour endurance race at Daytona International Speedway.
The partnership with Wayne Taylor was announced in December, with both teams saying negotiations were swift and the deal completed seamlessly, a bit of a surprise given how focused Andretti has been on acquiring an F1 team. A failed attempt to buy an existing F1 team for 2021 has led Andretti to petition the FIA’s governing body to expand the grid to allow two cars to join.
Existing teams have strongly opposed Andretti’s demands, and F1 has repeatedly said that simply Andretti is not the only one interested in starting an F1 team. Andretti’s latest positioning is General Motors, which pairs him with the top U.S. automaker.
The partnership with GM, along with Andretti’s name, theoretically makes Andretti’s bid even more attractive as F1 expands to three races across the United States in 2023.
But while he waits, Andretti continues to build his empire. Late last year, he broke ground on the state-of-the-art facility in Indiana that Wayne Taylor will live in once completed.
Andretti will have a busy year on the grid at Daytona. His father Mario Andretti made him one of only four drivers in history to win both the Daytona 500 and the Rolex 24. Taylor won the Rolex title twice in his career as a driver and four times as a team owner. Most recently he was in 2021.
With Rolex finished, Michael Andretti will move to California next week for IndyCar testing, and the IMSA program will expand the Andretti brand to seven different racing series in 2023. Young Sons.
This weekend alone, Andretti will be represented by 12 different drivers at Rolex’s Daytona and two at the Formula E race in Saudi Arabia.
Isn’t it too thin to spread? Andretti shook his head strongly when asked if the Associated Press was getting too involved in the racing series.
“I don’t believe it,” said Andretti. “I believe that if you can put the right people in the right positions, it should help the overall effort. I think it helps and vice versa.”
“We feel like we’re reinforcing ourselves. Even if we try to use the same people in every program, we’re bringing the right people together.”
Andretti representatives estimate that the motorsports program currently has 157 employees and Wayne Taylor is adding another 30 through the merger. It was Andretti’s resource that caught my attention.
Taylor had a few initial conversations with Andretti, but rushed to follow the story when he saw the other team while testing their new car.
“I was walking up and down the pit thinking, ‘What the hell are we going to do here? We need to step up to the next level.’ I said, ‘I think I’m ready for this partnership,'” Taylor said. We’ve been in sports car racing longer than they have, but they have great assets to help us, people, technology, etc.
“And so far it’s been really great working with Michael, the staff and the drivers and I’m very excited about the long-term future.”
One of the purposes of merging the two organizations is to help Taylor expand into a two-car factory team. Wayne Taylor Racing and Michael Shank Racing will usher in this new IMSA era of hybrid engines with his one machine each as Acura’s factory team. Le Mans. The GTP class has been overhauled this year to allow the team to compete in the 24 Hours of Le Mans, but Acura has already said he won’t be ready until 2024.
However, Andretti plans to get there as soon as possible. He and his father have finished on the podium at Le Mans, and Taylor has won a class as a driver, noting that he is one of the major races WTR has not won as an organization.
“100%. Le Mans is definitely our target,” said Andretti. So in the future, we definitely want to stay there. “
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AP Auto Racing: https://apnews.com/hub/auto-racing and https://twitter.com/AP_Sports
