Andretti, the hopeful Formula 1 team entrant, will have difficulty even establishing teams in the support categories of Formula 3 and Formula 2.
As part of his push to convince F1 owner Liberty Media to greenlight Andretti-Cadillac's grand prix ambitions, Michael Andretti announced he would also set up F3 and F2 teams.
However, Bruno Michel, the CEO of both Formula 2 and Formula 3, downplays the chances of that happening.
"For Formula 3," he told France's Auto Hebdo, "I think it is completely out of the question to increase the number of cars."
"Thirty cars is already a lot, and it's a very good number. We'd struggle to find enough drivers for any more teams."
"Then, on the track, we also know that at some point, having too many cars is not very good for the races and also for having a coherent grid," Michel added.
The same basic logic applies to Formula 2, he says.
"We had 26 cars in GP2, then we went down to 20, and then we went back up to 22," the Frenchman explained. "I'm pretty happy with the numbers we have right now, for several reasons."
"The first thing is that it has to be viable for the teams, and finding 22 drivers with adequate budgets is never an easy task," Michel said. "So I would say that at the moment, I am not very inclined to increase the number of teams."
However, he clarified that he is not trying to exclude Andretti from F1's feeder categories.
"They can try to make a deal with an existing team," Michel said, "or they can apply—and if they do, there's always the possibility that a team won't continue or a team doesn't make the cut."
"In that case, they would have a chance of coming in. The F2 process happened last year, and the next one will be in three years. For F3, it happens this year, so if they want to join, they will have to go through the selection process."
He noted that he hasn't had any discussions with Andretti officials on the matter.
"I've read a few articles about Andretti saying that they want to join F2 and F3, but haven't been in contact yet," said Michel. "I understand that Andretti linked his possible programs to a program in Formula 1, which is also not yet decided at the moment."
