I suppose I should admit straight away that this is not really a Green Notebook column, because we all mess up sometimes and I arrived in Miami unable to find my normal myrtle green pocket-sized Moleskine. I assumed I had left it at home, and my wife handed it to me when I got home, having spotted it in the rubbish, as it fell off my desk and landed in the bin – which some might call poetic justice…

I didn’t really have time to go out shopping for a new one and so I asked a young lady at the reception desk in the Media Center at the Hard Rock Stadium if, by any chance, they had any notebooks kicking around under the desk.

She went far beyond the call of duty and sent someone off to find a Miami Dolphins football leather-covered notebook, which was hidden away on the opposite side of the vast stadium.

Thus, I have changed the design of the Green Notebook logo for this week in tribute (and thanks) for this largesse and for her patience to deal with such a silly problem.

Anyway, back to the Golden Bear Grill. This is a restaurant in Fort Lauderdale airport, where I found refuge while waiting for my plane home, as American Airlines does not have a lounge there, and the only lounge is an American Express one for which one needs a platinum American Express card to gain entry. Decades ago I had a Scarlett O’Hara moment with American Express and, up to my knees in mud, declared: “As God is my witness, I’ll never use Amex again”, so this was not an option.

Thus I picked the Golden Bear Grill. I am not into golf at all, but everyone my age knows the name Jack Nicklaus, although I was unaware that the golfing legend has developed his own brand called “Golden Bear”, a nickname he had a long time ago. To be honest, I tend to confuse him with Greg Norman because back in the day they both had a mop of golden hair. Anyway, the Golden Bear Grill was pleasant enough. I was weary after working through the night and was happy to sit there, listening to announcements that one would only hear in the US, notably about how one should make sure that there are no firearms in your baggage…

I ordered something called a Philly Cheesesteak (one word). I did this on the basis that I had never tried one before and what can possibly go wrong with steak, bread and some cheese? A vast thing arrived soon afterwards, as Bruce Springsteen was singing “everybody’s got a hungry heart”. Everyone around me seemed to be hungry because they were all happily shovelling away at vast mountains of food, like Forty-Niners in search of golden nuggets. I then discovered what can go horribly wrong with steak, bread and cheese and decide that Philadelphia is best remembered for the Liberty Bell, than the cheesesteak.

Just to give you an idea of how tired I was, when I got on the plane home I settled into my seat and then it struck me that I was on the wrong side of the aisle and so I moved across and settled in there instead. A while later, the passenger who hd taken over he seat leant across and said: “It’s a bit weird, but there are someone’s shoes under my seat. I’m not quite sure what to do about it.”

Oh,  I said. They’re mine. I forget them… I was quite relieved because I didn’t want to end up being Shoeless Joe when we got to Chicago, as I wasn’t wearing white sox.

Liberty is a big thing in the United States, as the large green lady in New York harbour indicates. Every morning, across the nation, school children go through the ritual of reciting the pledge of allegiance before classes begin, in which they chant that the country is  “one nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all”.

Formula 1 is owned these days by a company called Liberty Media, which is owned by a rather wealthy chap called John Malone. The so-called “Cable Cowboy” is not just mega-rich, he is also the owner of 3,437 square miles of the United States, which is twice the area of the state of Rhode Island. If you go to Liberty Media headquarters in Colorado (not that I have), you will find a rather dramatic statue of a bald eagle outside the building. This, as everyone knows, is the national emblem of the United States, and has been since 1782.

This is why I struggle to understand those who argue, including some members of the House of Representatives, that Formula 1 is anti-American because it does not want a team called Andretti. Formula 1 these days IS American. The company is listed on the New York Stock Exchange and many of the investors are American corporations. The Haas F1 team is owned by an American and races under the US flag, the Ford Motor Company will soon be coming into F1 with Red Bull, lot of other teams have US shareholders and sponsors. I have just received a WhatsApp about Liberty’s Q1 report, which has been filed with the US Securities and Exchange Commission, detailing the company’s financial results. Thus when I see a letter signed by some Congressmen insinuating that F1 is anti-American because they think F1 is European, I tend to think that they have been misled.

If one looks at the 12 signatories it is not hard to see a pattern which relates to Andretti and GM. Four of the dozen come from Indiana, where the Andretti team is based and employs people; three are from Michigan, three from Texas and one from North Carolina, all states where General Motors has a significant presence. I admit I was briefly perplexed by the congressman from Florida who was a signatory but it did not take long to figure out that Andretti’s primary supporter Dan Towriss  (the boss of Gainbridge) is resident in the district that the congressman represents.

I mentioned this to Andretti’s representative in the paddock and it was clear that the team was keen not to be seen to have been involved in organising this letter and I was told a fantastic tale of how John James, a representative from Michigan, dreamed up the whole idea after seeing a Red Bull demonstration run on the streets of Washington DC, apparently because he thought that this was F1 flipping the bird at Congress.  I read somewhere that he said something along the lines that F1 clearly wanted to be noticed in the US and he was doing just that. I remain sceptical.

The letter also mentions the Sherman Antitrust Act of 1890. This I found very strange. I am not a competition lawyer but I have learned one thing over time and that is that antitrust laws all have the same basic objective: to protect the process of competition for the benefit of consumers, making sure there are strong incentives for businesses to operate efficiently, keep prices down, and keep quality up.

I cannot work to is why Andretti not getting an entry in F1 impacts on the average US consumer, bu obviously the congressmen understand these things better than I do.

F1 has become a very profitable business and getting an entry guarantees profits. Some of the teams are still investing to build up their capabilities, but none of them are under the threat of shutting down, as was the case a few years ago. The fact that Andretti has GM support is terrific, but its decision to go ahead came too late to get things done before 2028. The Andretti team has been told by Formula 1 that it is welcome to apply in the future, when it has a GM engine. So why are congressmen complaining and implying that F1 is anti-competitive and that this is all a plot against the US? Obviously, none of them follow F1 closely because otherwise they would know that this is all utter tosh (for the reasons mentioned above).

So what is this really all about? 

In America people are always throwing lawsuits around. Guenther Steiner is currently suing Gene Haas, for example, over sponsorship commissions that have not been paid to the former Haas team principal. I’m a little surprised that if Andretti believes it has a case against Liberty Media, it has not gone down straight to court. Trying to use politicians to do the job may get more publicity but does not change the fundamentals of the law.

I could suggest that this strategy is more to do with trying to force a way into the sport, hoping that Liberty Media will back down rather than have to deal with negative publicity because controversial noise can impact share price. This is pure speculation but it makes sense.  I am sure that GM and Andretti can afford expensive lawyers who would be only too happy to build expensive lawsuits, if they could figure out a good argument.

The thing is that when does not have an invitation to a tea party, one does not arrive and try to kick the door down. If you do, you have to accept that you might end up with a cake ll over your face. I see this hardening resistance to Andretti, not softening it.

Liberty Media are not people who liked to to be pushed around and they seem very confident that they have done nothing wrong. It is clear that Liberty Media see the Andretti project as a money grab. They think the team’s backers are looking to invest $500 million in order to pick up an asset worth more than $1 billion. They think that if an entry is granted, the team will contribute little to the sport and the backers will flip the business to some other financiers fairly quickly – and make a fortune. To quote from The Godfather: “It’s not personal. It’s strictly business.”

The growing popularity of F1 in the United States was seen not just in the record TV viewing figures for the Miami race, but also be the fact that presidential candidate Donald Trump took time out from his court appearances to appear in the paddock, keen to use the event to his advantage. Trump was there because real estate developer Steve Witkoff had planned for a fund-raising event in one of the suites during the race weekend. This idea was rejected by the race promoter. Trump still showed up and hung out with his supporters. He requested to visit McLaren, probably through the team’s owner, the government of Bahrain, but the team did officially make the point that it is “a non-political organisation”. This was a wise approach because Trump is a very divisive figure at home and abroad, although the roar of the crowd when he appeared indicted the level of his support, at least in Florida. Why he was on the grid, I do not know, but it was probably best not to refuse him, as he has a good chance of becoming president again later this year.

Wearing his MAGA cap and tweeting about how he associates himself with winners might be seen as using the event as a political tool. One can argue about whether this should be allowed. Political leaders often show up at races (but don’t often wear campaign hats). The FIA Statutes say that the federation shall “refrain from manifesting discrimination on account of race, skin colour, gender, sexual orientation, ethnic or social origin, language, religion, philosophical or political opinion, family situation or disability in the course of its activities and from taking any action in this respect”.  Trump will probably not be back in F1 and there is not much anyone can do to sanction him for wearing a MAGA hat. Still, it was probably not wise for the FIA President to pose for pictures with The Donald as some of the members might consider this to be a political act.

Fortunately, rumours that music icon Taylor Swift might show up as well proved to be incorrect, which was good as she and Trump do not get along – and she has a LOT of Swifties who follow her advice. Not long ago she told her 281 million followers on Instagram that the should use their votes. She didn’t say how she would vote, but the Trump camp is worried that a singer could swing the election against him. Mad world, isn’t it?

Anyway, Swift’s current partner Travis Kelce, a star with the NFL’s Kansas City Chiefs, was with Alpine in Miami, alongside his fellow player Patrick Mahomes, an investor in the team.

All of this underscores the impact that F1 is now having in the United States and there is no shortage of American sports investors keen to get a slice of any team. The rumours that Lawrence Stroll is selling another 25 percent of the Aston Martin F1 team has got a lot of folk excited and the word is that this stake could go for as much as $375 million, which would value the team at $1.5 billon. Among the folks visiting the paddock in Miami were several of the consortium which invested in Chelsea Football Club in 2022. That was a deal that valued Chelsea at $5.4 billion and was led led by Todd Boehly, with support from private equity giant Clearlake Capital, which is controlled by Behdad Eghbali and José Feliciano. Boehly has also been involved with an investment in the Los Angeles Dodgers, in partnership with sports investor Mark Walter, who is believed to be one of the backers of Andretti.

Another indication of F1’s impact in the US was a very clever deal between Mercedes and WhatsApp, which owned by Meta (the former Facebook) which was launched in the days before Miami using the Empire State Building in New York and a demonstration run along Fifth Avenue. The deal sees WhatsApp replacing its red Ferrari-like racing car emoji with a black and ultramarine blue car, that looks like a Mercedes. WhatsApp has three billion users around  the world and so this tiny change can have a massive impact. On Sunday, a radio-controlled version of the emoji could be seen on the grid in Miami.

The growth of interest in Formula 1 in the US was backed up by the announcement from the Circuit of the Americas that it will have concerts featuring massive names Eminem and Sting at the US Grand Prix this year. The Miami event featured Ed Sheeran

FIA President Mohammed Ben Sulayem was, as always, keen to jump in front of the cameras at every opportunity, blissfully unaware that his “goal-hanging” behaviour with F1 drivers and celebrities is causing much amusement. His aides might warn him about this but it seems that the President does not like to be advised. He seems to be a follower of the philosophy that good leadership creates followers, rather than creating more leaders. It is perhaps no coincidence that there has been a steady flow of people departing the federation. The latest is a big blow as the FIA’s CEO Natalie Robyn is departing after less than two years in the role. Robyn was appointed to bring change to the organisation and her appointment was described by Ben Sulayem as being “a transformative moment”.

The transformation is clearly not going well. Still with the patronage system that exists, asking for a change in the electoral process is like enquiring whether turkeys might wish to support Thanksgiving. F1 is obviously not keen on the way things are but it does not want to be involved in any attempts to find a better candidate because the European Union competition directorate might take an interest if the commercial rights holder stepped over the line and got involved. I am told that the FIA’s refusal to give Hitech an entry has resulted in a legal action based on the premise that the FIA has no right to refuse a team on financial grounds – because it should not be involved in the commercial side of F1.

Oh, what a tangled web it all is.

Moving on to more interesting subjects, the big talking point in Miami was Adrian Newey and it was very odd to see him at the event after having announced his decision to depart from the team. Usually when someone leaves a team, they to go instantly because the team does not want them to gain any more knowledge, but there Adrian was sitting on the pitwall. He says that he does not know where he is going to but his idea of off on a world tour on a new  $6 million 27.4-metre Oyster 885 yacht will have to wait. The boat is not yet ready. I had a chat about going around the world on a yacht and Adrian explained that it cane be done in around 18 months without too much drama. He does not sound like someone who is going to retire and the timing of his departure from Red Bull is obviously calculated as he will be able to start working at another team 12 months from now, which will give him time to impact on the design of a 2026 car. This is not a coincidence.

Some people assume that Ferrari is the obvious choice but there are still many things that would make this a move the would be out of character.  He is not a man who likes public scrutiny (and vitriol) and being the technical chief at Ferrari means that flak is a part of life. One can construct decent arguments for a lot of the possible choices and money is only important in that it is a measure of success. Newey has never worked outside the English-language world. He was in America in his youth and in recent years he has spent a lot of time  in South Africa, where his wife is from. He owns a palatial estate near Ascot in England, one of the nicest places in the country, and the idea that he will be happy living in an apartment in Monte Carlo is at best far-fetched. The house is only 10 miles from McLaren, something which Zak Brown may have mentioned…

Elsewhere, McLaren’s most recent departing engineer, Dvid Sanchez has turned up at Alpine. This is no great surprise although the team denied it was going to happen. It seems, however, that this was an unfortunately incorrect denial and he is there as Executive Technical Director. The team has also taken on Michael Broadhurst, who has been principal aerodynamicist at Red Bull for the last three year. He is moving to Enstone to become head of aerodynamics.

The driver market remains stuck because Mercedes and Red Bull do not want to make decisions about Carlos Sainz, preferring to wit and watching how things develop. Sainz has been talking to pretty much everyone. Audi is keen but it isn’t a great choice fo Carlos. Alpine is also a possibility. Sainz Sr worked with them boss Bruno Famin with the Peugeot Dakar team, with much success, and Alpine is supported by a big manufacturer in Renault, but there is much work to be done. We will see what happens but for now the drivers market is busy but quiet.

The green notebook will be back in at Imola soon and hopefully there will be some more juicy gossip about sporting stuff… and less of the political machinations.