Formula 1 sells itself as pure meritocracy: fastest car wins. But who even gets a car on the grid in the first place isn’t decided by lap times — it’s decided by a private, historically confidential contract that most fans have never heard of: the Concorde Agreement.
In 2023, General Motors and racing legend Michael Andretti applied to join F1 as an 11th team. The FIA approved it. F1 itself rejected it anyway — and leaked messages later suggested existing team principals had lobbied against the bid behind the scenes. A bipartisan group of U.S. senators got involved. The DOJ opened an antitrust inquiry. Liberty Media’s top lawyer was out within months.
This video breaks down the real business of Formula 1: the money, the gatekeeping, and the mechanism most fans never see.
In this video:
→ How the Concorde Agreement decides who races — and who profits
→ The Andretti-Cadillac rejection, the leaked messages, and the Senate letter that followed
→ Why Red Bull’s cost-cap breach barely cost them anything
→ Saudi Arabia’s rejected $20 billion offer for F1 — and what “sportswashing” actually means
→ The Drive to Survive controversy: which scenes were staged, and why it matters
Mechanics of Power breaks down the systems, institutions, and mechanisms that quietly run the modern world — one story at a time.
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