While projects for a team launch in Formula 1 have been relatively rare in recent years, with the exception of the Panthera but also the one linked to Adrián Campos’ team, a press release published on Monday suggests a possible future candidacy of the businessman Salvatore Gandolfo, founder and CEO of Monaco Increase Management (MIM Group), under the name of “Monaco F1 Racing Team“.
The name of Gandolfo is not unknown because it was precisely part of the project promoted by Campos in 2019 and that had the ambition to enter the Formula 1 in 2021, taking advantage of the new technical and financial regulations to do so at a lower cost, hoping to be competitive.
However, while the financial rules came into effect this year (and even at a lower level than anticipated in 2019), the pandemic by COVID-19 caused the postponement of the technical revolution until 2022.
In addition to the technical and economic issue, the signing of the new Concordia Agreements brought to the table new data to take into account, such as the payment of a “ticket entry” in Formula 1 for a sum of 200 million dollars. The idea is to force any new participant to pay this amount to give a touch of seriousness to their project, but also a way to protect the interests and investments of the other teams already present, among whom the payment of the new team would be distributed from a equitable manner.
However, last week, Stefano Domenicali, the new CEO of Formula 1, spoke about this issue in front of various media, including Motorsport.com. When asked about this $ 200 million down payment, he said, “I would say if something has to be changed, we would discuss it, because we have time to do it. I think if we need to go further in the discussion about this money, I think it will be possible to do it ”.
These statements were immediately translated into a desire to discard such payment, which seems to be the origin of the press release published by Gandolfo that reveals this new project.
“The current Monaco F1 Racing Team project was the first to actively discuss the possibility of entering into talks with the F1 government, starting in 2019, and establishing a structure accordingly, recognizing the potential of the new technical regulations that would initially enter in force in 2021 ”, can be read in the document published on the MIM Group website.
“We believe that the recent statements by new F1 CEO Stefano Domenicali, who suggests that the $ 200 million registration fee for new teams could be waived, is a step in the right direction. Given the open attitude of Stefano and the FIA we are ready to take the necessary steps to ensure that our application is finalized. “
The project was presented in 2019 relying in particular on Daniele Audetto, who had previously worked in various management positions within the teams Ferrari, Arrows o Super Aguri. He had originally named Pascal Wehrlein (former F1 driver and currently Porsche competitor in Formula E) and Álex Palou (IndyCar driver in Ganassi) as their future drivers, the races of the two men are run by MIM Group.
Quickly reacting to this possible candidacy when it was made public in October 2019, F1 had then said scathingly: “Following the publicity made in recent days by various entities that have expressed their ambition to participate in the 2021 Formula 1 World Championship Although F1 appreciates your interest, we can confirm that there are no serious discussions with people or companies about the admission of a new team.