Toto Wolff talks expansion ahead of the British Grand Prix

Expanding the Formula 1 field has been a hot topic this entire season.

Earlier this year FIA invited prospective teams to apply for entry to F1, and we have confirmed bids from both the newly formed Andretti-Cadillac partnership, as well as Hitech Pulse-Eight. The Andretti-Cadillac partnership was announced earlier this year to media members, including SB Nation, while Hitech confirmed their bid last month.

Throughout this process Mercedes Team Principal Toto Wolff has seemed less than receptive to the idea.

At Friday’s press conferences ahead of the British Grand Prix, Wolff was asked again about F1 expanding the field, under the guise of an 11th team being on the grid this weekend — the ATX GP team that is part of the upcoming movie featuring Brad Pitt and produced in part by Lewis Hamilton — and the Mercedes boss seemed to warm a bit to expansion.

With a twist.

“Our position was very clear: buy a team. But you know, there’s a lot of consequences. When you look at qualifying sessions, I mean already now we’re looking like on a go-kart track, we’re tripping over each other,” said Wolff on Friday. “There is a safety concern: we haven’t got the logistics, where to put an eleventh team. Here in Silverstone, we can accommodate the Hollywood people but on other circuits, we can’t. Then people like Audi and the venture capital funds, have been buying into F1 teams for considerably higher valuations. And so all of that is a picture that the FIA and FOM have to access.”

“And, as I said before, if a team can contribute to the positive development of Formula 1, then… and in a way that the other teams have done, over the many years, have suffered over the many years… yeah, we have to look at it,” added the Mercedes boss.

He continued, and perhaps undermined his own point a tiny bit.

“There is no mature sports league in the world, whether it’s a national football championship, or the Champions League, the NBA, the NFL, the NHL, where such situation is possible, where you say I’m setting up a team and I’m joining, thank you very much for making me part of the prize fund,” added Wolff. “You have to give to qualify; you have to go through the ranks; you have to showcase the commitment to the Championship that we’ve done over the many years.”

Here is where the argument is undercut slightly, by history.

After all, some of the leagues mentioned by Wolff have indeed expanded throughout their history, beyond just finding new owners for existing franchises. MLB most recently expanded in 1998, adding the Arizona Diamondbacks and the Tampa Bay Devil Rays (now the Tampa Bay Rays). The NHL added the Seattle Kraken for the 2021 season and prior to they they added the Vegas Golden Knights in 2017.

You know, the Stanley Cup Champions.

In addition, the NHL may be looking to expand beyond their current 32 teams, with both Houston and Atlanta being discussed.

Then there is the NFL. The Carolina Panthers and the Jacksonville Jaguars were added in 1995, and the Houston Texans joined the NFL in 2002. For years now, the idea of further expansion has been floated around the NFL, with the most popular idea centered on the creation of an international division.

However, the Mercedes boss might be angling to simply have more say in the decision.

Because he later clarified his position, and seemed to make the case that expansion in F1 should mirror how it is handled in the NFL and other American leagues. In the NFL, owners have to vote to approve additional franchises.

Wolff angled for something similar.

“No, I’m looking more at the American franchises. If everybody in the NFL agrees – the teams that own the franchise there, so it’s different to us – agrees to have another entry, to let another team in because of the right reasons, the right ownership, etc, etc, then that team is being admitted into the championship,” added Wolff. “And the same with most of the professional leagues in the US. We are a franchise, and this is how I would look at it.”

Regardless of Wolff’s thoughts — and whether FIA heeds them or not — expanding the F1 field will dominate the conversation until a decision is made.

And likely after then as well.