Michael Andretti to step aside from day-to-day control of Andretti Global

• 61-year-old looking to transition to strategic position
• Business partner Dan Towriss to assume control of organisation

Michael Andretti will give up the day-to-day running of his eponymous organisation, handing control to his business partner Dan Towriss.

As first reported by Sportico, the 61-year-old is looking to transition from his operational role into a strategic position. The son of racing legend Mario Andretti has been a director of Andretti Global since 2002.

Michael Andretti has now confirmed that he won’t be separating himself entirely from the organisation as he looks to reclaim some time for his personal life.

“We’ve been working on this for a few months now,” Andretti told the Associated Press (AP). “For me where I am in my life and what I want to do, the timing was right for me to take a little different role with the team.

“A role where I don’t have to be on it every day and I can still stay involved because I’ll be involved as an advisor as well as an ambassador. We were able to come to a deal between myself and Dan and I think we are both happy with what we came up with.”

The report from Sportico claimed that Andretti is ‘relinquishing his ownership stake’, something that Towriss disputed to AP.

“We didn’t say that he doesn’t own our team,” Towriss said. “There’s all kinds of speculation. We certainly have restructured the ownership. Michael still has a financial interest. This got leaked in a way that put us on our back foot in terms of responding to things.

“People are going to always look to try to fill a vacuum with stories that sound great and are super interesting. This one is not super interesting. Michael said this was a time to take on a different role from the daily grind.”

Andretti stoked controversy in the IndyCar paddock this season when he called on series owner Roger Penske to sell the championship. But, when asked if Penske had pushed him out, Andretti denied the claim, saying he “would not give Roger that much credit”.

Sportico is a subsidiary of the Penske Media Corporation (PMC), owned by Roger’s son Jay.

It also appears that McLaren Racing chief executive Zak Brown has joined the board of directors of Andretti Acquisition Corp. II, a special purpose acquisition company (SPAC).

A SPAC is a shell corporation that looks to acquire or merge with a private company, making the private company public without having to go through the traditional corporate formation. This was achieved previously with Zapata AI, which went on to agree a US$1 million partnership expansion with Andretti Global.

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BlackBook says…

On the surface, this appears to be a considered move by a man who turns 62 this week. But there is no escaping the fact that Michael Andretti has caused a lot of noise this year.

Not only did he publicly rebel against Roger Penske, who saved IndyCar from extinction during the Covid-19 pandemic, Andretti also turned the Formula One paddock against him with his attempts to be accepted as the series’ 11th team.

Removing Andretti as the figurehead means that Andretti Global can revisit soured relationships with a fresh approach, which might indicate that it is looking to return to conversations with Formula One.

Despite the organisation’s rejection from the series, the door was left ajar for a more solidified entry bid in 2028 and, with a state-of-the-art facility established in the UK, the foundations are there for this to be revisited.

Plus, with Zak Brown now connected to Andretti, it has a much stronger base of support within Formula One.