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Announced last Wednesday, Maffei will not be immediately replaced with his position to be filled on an interim basis by chairman and founder of Liberty Media, John Malone.
Maffei oversaw Liberty’s acquisition of Formula 1 in 2017 and appointed Chase Carey to run the business in Bernie Ecclestone’s place.
Carey has since moved on, and his position as president and CEO of Formula 1 is now occupied by ex-Ferrari team principal Stefano Domenicali.
The Italian has been in the job since 2020 and looks set to remain, at least initially, once Maffei departs.
Speculation has linked him with a move to MotoGP, which Liberty Media is attempting to acquire, presumably with Renee Wilm (CEO of Las Vegas Grand Prix and chief legal officer for Liberty) the replacement-in-waiting.
However, that doesn’t appear to be the case, with Domenicali understood to be under contract to head F1 for another year.
Since Liberty acquired F1 in 2017, in a deal worth $8 billion, the business side of F1 has flourished.
Changes to the financial and sporting side of the sport have been nothing short of transformative for teams as well, developing them into billion-dollar organisations rather than the loss-making entities they were less than a decade ago.
That transformation has been so successful that F1 team owners now include investors looking for financial returns from their involvement, rather than enthusiastic, and altruistic, individuals.
The landscape is also appealing to new teams, which are permitted under the sporting regulations and the Concorde Agreements (the commercial deals which underpin the sport).
In February last year, the FIA opened an expressions of interest process for potential new entrants, with four applications received.
Of these, Andretti Global was the only one to satisfy the governing body that it was capable of competing in Formula 1, and it’s application progress to the ‘next phase’.
That additional step was appraisal by F1, which assessed the entry from a commercial standpoint.
In January, it controversially denied Andretti’s F1 entry.
It attempted to justify its decision with a lengthy statement offering bullet points into the decision making process.
Widely criticised at the time, the matter has not gone away.
And there was apparently no consensus within Formula 1 in the Andretti decision given its former technical chief, Pat Symonds, left the organisation for the American operation in May.
Despite the rejection, Andretti Global has continued to work towards entry in 2026, spending millions on hiring new staff, developing new facilities, and designing its first car.
Speedcafe revealed its first 2026-spec chassis will be completed in the coming weeks.
Meanwhile, pressure has been mounting politically as Formula 1’s decision to refuse it entry caught the eye of politicians and lawmakers in both Europe and the United States.
Stateside, the Department of Justice has opened an investigation into potential breaches of the Sherman Act, which governs monopolistic and anti-competitive business practices.
When Formula 1 visited the Austin for the United States Grand Prix in October, it’s known officials connected to the investigation reached out to a number of high-profile team bosses.
That investigation was originally sparked by an appearance on Capitol Hill by Mario Andretti, father of Andretti Global founder Michael.
The 1978 Formula 1 world champion spoke with politicians in the run up to the Miami Grand Prix in May in an appearance that was not well received by Maffei.
Just two days later, the Liberty Media boss doorstepped the 84-year-old during a breakfast event at the Miami GP while he was in conversation with Domenicali.
“I was asked to go there,” Andretti told NBC of the Capitol Hill appearance.
“And just as I was trying to explain that to Stefano, Greg Maffei, Mr. Maffei, broke in the conversation and he said: ‘Mario, I want to tell you that I will do everything in my power to see that Michael never enters Formula 1’.
“I could not believe that,” he added.
“That one really floored me. … We’re talking about business. I didn’t know it was something so personal.
“That was really — oh, my goodness. I could not believe it. It was just like a bullet through my heart.”
A day prior, Maffei had received a letter from a number of US Senators requesting further information regarding Andretti’s rejection.
Then came another, this time from the Committee of the Judiciary, in the days that followed until, on August 8, the Department of Justice investigation was launched.
That remains ongoing, as do Andretti’s efforts towards an F1 berth.
But given Maffei’s seemingly personal stance, could attitudes towards an 11th team be changing within the walls of Liberty Media?
Maffei has been at the helm for 19 years and the announcement of his departure at the end of the year was unexpected.
Had it been part of a longer-term plan one would expect a replacement to have been named, or obvious, and yet there was no such detail. Maffei has also stated that he does not have another role to move on to.
A sudden announcement from a long-term CEO with no ready replacement and no future plans is an unusual state of affairs for an organisation with a market cap of well over $20 billion.
“There will be another chapter at Liberty but I got to declare victory on the ones that I did,” he told CNBC.
“We’ve had some great deals, we’ve been very lucky, had some great management teams drive them, and it seemed like a good time to say all of the table is cleaned up there, the stage is set, and my contract was expiring at the end of the year, and I thought I’d go check out another chapter.
“I’m going to continue to be an advisor, I’m going to continue to be on a bunch of our boards including Live Nation and Charter, but I’ve got one more act in me.”
The 64-year-old Maffei has a personal worth approaching a billion dollars and will remain an advisor to Malone and a significant shareholder of Liberty Media even after formally stepping down as CEO.
Given Malone himself will step in suggests a degree of surprise if not even frustration. There have been suggestions of tension building between the two for some time.
There have also been suggestions that it isa signal that the Formula 1 business will be sold, a point denied by Maffei.
Given credit to those suggestions is that fact Liberty Media has undergone a significant restructure, with a number of businesses spun off into standalone entities.
That leaves Liberty Media essentially holding only Formula 1, and potentially MotoGP if its efforts to buy Dorna are approved by the European Commission.
It amounts to a significant simplification and reduction in scope from the organisation, which might explain Maffei’s decision to depart.
Whatever the reason for his exit, it offers Andretti Global renewed hope of a change in attitude towards an 11th team.
Liberty Media is under pressure to justify its decision on both sides of the Atlantic, with its actions in potentially damaging to its hopes of acquiring MotoGP given the European Commission’s interest.
Whether a change in position over Andretti now would placate those concerns is unclear, but it would draw a convenient line in the sand; it could be argued that the decisions taken under Maffei were not reflective of the new-look Liberty Media, no matter how accurate (or otherwise) that statement might be.
There are also question marks over the commercial rights holder (Liberty Media) wielding a regulatory power (approval of an entry), a point the European Commission has previously ruled on.
Stateside, the recent US election win for Donald Trump raises questions regarding the DOJ investigation’s future.
A change in administration could come with a change of attitude towards anticompetition laws and see the investigation closed down.
Conversely, it could be used as a public relations win for the incoming president, who takes office following his inauguration on January 20.
With his stance to ‘make America great again’, the apparent denial of an American-owned team with support from General Motors could be weaponised by the incoming-president.
European rivals Mercedes, McLaren, Honda, Audi, and even Toyota to an extent will all have a presence on the grid.
Formula 1 returns to the United States next weekend for the Las Vegas Grand Prix, where the investigation into Andretti’s denial is expected to ramp up once more.
Whether that sustained pressure and changed political landscape within Liberty Media is enough to force the door open for Andretti is unclear.
What is clear, however, is that Maffei’s departure removes a significant hurdle the squad needs to clear.
