American F1 Driver Hopes Take A Step Back as Andretti Reportedly Out of Alfa Romeo Talks

Michael Andretti's hopes of owning a Formula One team may have to wait.

Michael Andretti's rumored takeover of Sauber's Alfa Romeo Formula One team will not move forward as the team and Andretti could not reach an agreement, according to RaceFans.net's Dieter Rencken and Keith Collantine. 

According to Auto Motor und Sport, Andretti would have needed to pay a bank guarantee of $250 million to operate the team for the next five years on top of a rumored $350 million purchase of the team.

“We have no comment to make about these rumours,” an Alfa Romeo spokesperson told RaceFans. “Any discussion, past, present or future in relation to the ownership of the team is the responsibility of the shareholders and not something about which the team will offer any statement.”

As F1 continues to boom in the United States, the possible deal by Andretti boosted hopes for an American driver to join the series in the coming years. The sport was clearly welcomed back to America with more than 400,000 fans attending the Circuit of the Americas in Austin last weekend for the U.S. Grand Prix. In 2022, the Miami Grand Prix has been added to F1's biggest race calendar yet. However, there has not been an American in F1 since Alexander Rossi appeared in five Grand Prix races with Marussia in 2015.

Colton Herta, 21, has won three races this year for Andretti Autoport in IndyCar and was rumored as a possible candidate to move to F1 following a deal if he could get his superlicense to be eligible.

In early September, Alfa Romeo announced Valterri Bottas will be moving from Mercedes to drive for them in 2022. Bottas is currently in third (186 points) in the driver standings behind Max Verstappen (287.5 points) and Lewis Hamilton (275.5).