F1 owners Liberty Media confirm Department of Justice antitrust investigation over Andretti bid

The latest saga in the ongoing Andretti-Cadillac F1 bid? A DOJ antitrust investigation

The latest twist in the ongoing saga regarding the prospective Andretti-Cadillac Formula 1 team?

A United States Department of Justice antitrust investigation.

Greg Maffei, the CEO of Liberty Media — the company that owns F1 — confirmed that fact during a conference call Thursday.

“This morning, we announced that there is a DOJ investigation,” Greg Maffei said during an investor call Thursday.

“We intend to fully cooperate with that investigation, including any related requests for information. Our determination, F1 determination, was in compliance with all applicable US antitrust laws, and we’ve detailed the rationale for our decision vis a vis Andretti in prior statements.”

Earlier this year Formula One Management (FOM), the sport’s commercial rights holders, rejected a bid by the proposed Andretti-Cadillac team to become the 11th team on the F1 grid. That came in the wake of the Fédération Internationale de l’Automobile (FIA), the sport’s governing body, approving the proposed Andretti-Cadillac bid and referring the matter to the FOM for further negotiations.

Among the reasons given for the rejection of the bid by FOM was a concern that the proposed Andretti-Cadillac team would not be “competitive,” and that the proposed 11th team would not add value to the sport.

That rejection, which came in January, began receiving pushback on Capitol Hill ahead of this year’s Miami Grand Prix. Mario Andretti paid a visit to Congressional leaders on the Wednesday ahead of that race, joined by members of Congress who expressed their “concerns with apparent anti-competitive actions that could prevent two American companies, Andretti Global and General Motors (GM), from producing and competing in Formula 1” in a letter to Liberty Media.

The following week the House Judiciary Committee joined the fray, requesting documents and interviews with members of Liberty Media regarding the rejection of the bid. Later that month a bipartisan group of senators requested via letter that the U.S. Department of Justice’s Antitrust Division investigate the matter. In that letter, co-authored by Sen. Amy Klobuchar (D-MN), the chair of the Judiciary subcommittee on antitrust, and joined by the panel’s ranking member Sen. Mike Lee(R-UT), the senators expressed their concerns over the rejection of the Andretti-Cadillac bid.

“It is possible that such a refusal to deal—especially if orchestrated through a group boycott—could violate U.S. antitrust laws,” the senators wrote.

“Last year, F1 hosted three races in America, in Miami, Las Vegas, and Austin, while no other country hosted more than a single race,” they added. “Clearly there is a financial incentive to adding an American team to F1’s roster, and there is no reason they should be blocked unless [Formula 1 management] is trying to insulate its current partners from competition.”

It would seem, from Maffei’s comments on Thursday, that the DOJ indeed opened such an investigation.