White Kart Lane

Plus: F1 teams hope to triple the cost of admission

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The Formula 1 season is fast approaching, as we’re just three short days away from FP1 in Bahrain.

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White Kart Lane

The Tottenham Hotspur Football Club and Formula 1 have announced a 15-year strategic partnership to see London's longest indoor karting track built under the stadium.Boxing, NFL, and rugby matches have also taken place at the 62,850-seat stadium, in addition to music concerts.The way the Spurs see it, this opens them up to a potential audience of 5.9 billion people around the globe. With ambitions of being a global brand, not just a football club, this partnership is perfect.The idea of a karting circuit under the stadium is to help identify new motorsport talent.However, the experience also hopes to create apprenticeship and career opportunities for local young people, bringing greater diversity to the motorsport industry, particularly for women and underrepresented groups.

Less than a month after Alpine announced legendary footballer Zinedine Zidane as an ambassador, Formula 1 signed on with the English football club.

The overlap of F1 and football makes sense.

Triple the fee is not triple the fun

According to Motorsport, teams in Formula 1 are demanding at least $600 million to welcome an 11th team.

Sources say this is the lowest figure they have heard, and some teams are pushing for more.

The FIA, F1’s governing body, has a $200 million entry fee (set in the 2021 Concorde Agreement signed by all teams) to offset revenue and prize money dilution.

Still, teams are pushing for the rules to be amended earlier to increase the fee.

Andretti Global and Cadillac are the current top contenders to join F1, and they have a deal in place with Renault to supply engines if their bid is successful. Panthera Asia and Hitech are other teams that are said to have applied with interest.

Red Bull's Christian Horner has suggested that Andretti buy an existing team instead of starting a new one, and he may put AlphaTauri on the market.

Alternatively, AlphaTauri could relocate to England, easing specific logistical challenges.

Such is the politics of Formula 1. This will be one of the stories to watch as the talk of adding teams to the grid amongst such high growth won’t go away soon.

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