WASHINGTON (CN) — Congress is kicking things up a notch in its scrutiny of the Formula One world championship, demanding Tuesday that the racing series’ American owners fork over the details of its controversial decision to reject Andretti Global and General Motors from competing.
Writing in a letter to Formula One CEO Stefano Domenicali and Greg Maffei, CEO of F1 holding company Liberty Media, House Judiciary Committee chair Jim Jordan suggested that the organization may have engaged in “anticompetitive conduct” when it scrapped a collaborative effort from Andretti and Cadillac to join the exclusive grid.
“If Formula One must hinder competition and harm consumers to protect failing competitors, then the entire Formula One model may be broken and the entity cannot hide behind the necessity of a sports league to pursue anticompetitive conduct, wrote Jordan, an Ohio Republican.
Jordan contended that, among other things, the F1 organization was bending to the will of the championship’s 10 existing teams, some of whom are not keen to compete with an 11th entry for prize money and sponsorships.
Liberty Media, which bought a controlling stake in Formula One in 2016, is an American company based in Colorado and as such is required to follow U.S. antitrust law. While some collusion between sports teams and a managing organization is permitted by law, Jordan explained that any activity that might reduce competition or dissuade consumer interest could be considered anticompetitive.
Jordan asked Liberty Media and Formula One to provide Judiciary Committee staff with a briefing on their decision to reject the Andretti-Cadillac bid, noting that lawmakers were considering “potential legislation around the structure and competition of sports leagues.”
In addition, Jordan demanded that the company turn over all documents and communications related to the process of allowing new teams into F1 and all of the details surrounding Liberty Media’s decision to scrap the Andretti application.
The Judiciary Committee chair gave Maffei and Domenicali until May 21 to comply.
Efforts to compel details of the Andretti rejection out of Liberty Media come just a week after Mario Andretti, 1978 Formula One world champion and patriarch of the Andretti motorsports dynasty, came to Capitol Hill to implore lawmakers to act on his team’s rejection from the F1 grid.
Andretti met with Jordan and several other lawmakers, including Michigan Representative John James, about his team’s bid. Sources with knowledge of the meetings told Courthouse News last week that Jordan had left energized and eager to act on Liberty Media’s rejection.
James, meanwhile, sent his own letter to Maffei urging him to allow the Andretti-Cadillac team to join Formula One. Courthouse News was first to report that correspondence.
During a press conference held on Capitol Hill last week, James left the door open for future congressional action on the issue, such as a hearing which could see Liberty Media and Formula One executives testify before Congress.
“I hope it doesn’t come to that,” he told Courthouse News, adding that “there may be hearings, and the American people will learn about your motives.”
While James didn’t directly say whether he thought Liberty Media had violated U.S. antitrust law, he did suggest that the company had engaged in “cartel-like behavior … anti-competition, monopolistic type behavior.”
The lawmaker also suggested that Formula One executives were concerned about Cadillac’s European popularity eating into the market share of other auto manufacturers in the region.
Andretti, for his part, said that Andretti Global had done everything that had been asked of them and that the team would keep on pushing for a spot on the F1 grid.
“You can see we’re all in,” he told reporters, pointing out that Andretti has entries in every major motorsport all over the world. “Formula One is the one that’s left. We want to be part of that.”
The Federation Internationale de l’Automobile, the international governing body for motorsport which oversees Formula One, approved the Andretti-Cadillac bid in October.
But Liberty Media scrapped the team’s application in January in a surprising move, arguing that Andretti Global would stand to benefit more from its entry than the F1 organization would. The company also contended that GM, which would enter the series as a new engine supplier, would struggle competitively alongside other manufacturer teams such as Mercedes-Benz or Renault.
Liberty Media also owns event ticketing giant Live Nation, which is already facing antitrust scrutiny from the Justice Department.
This new legislative push comes just days after Formula One’s Miami Grand Prix, one of the series’ two new U.S. racing events. The Miami race drew a massive audience, including former President Donald Trump who was spotted touring the McLaren team’s paddock.
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